Central Adoption Resource Authority(CARA) has implemented new guidelines for adoption since 1st August 2015. On one hand these guidelines are doing injustice with most of the adoptive parents, while on the other hand children are waiting to be adopted by parents in adoption agencies. The new rules are impractical and inhuman and need to be changed.

 We have 2 adopted children in our joint family. I am running my small business in Mumbai and voluntarily helping adoptive parents in their adoption process. Since last two decades I am helping for the medical treatment of sick and injured babies admitted in various adoption centers as part of my social commitment. Now-a-days, whenever I visit these centers, I have observed the serious negative impact of the new guidelines of CARA on the adoption sector. Following are the important points that I would like to bring to your attention and  hope that you all will give it due consideration.

1. Online adoption registration process is only accessible to computer savvy person. This process is so complicated that being literate is not enough, but one has to be a complete computer expert for understanding it- Process must consider offline registration at institutions for parents who do not have access to computers.

2. There is no provision of giving priority for parents who are aged and near to cross the age of eligibility for adoption- Priority must be given to such parents.

3. There is no provision to authenticate the documents that are uploaded on online system. Anybody can upload fake documents and medical certificates. The only one to suffer due to this fake registration is the child- Hard copies of these documents must be sent to the Institutions which must conduct a thorough background check of the parents to check for their authenticity before the final registration.

4. The government agencies like SARA, DCPU, which are entitled to be helping hands for the common man for online adoption registration are not even known to people, neither are they approachable on phones and in their offices- Proper training must be given to these agencies to support the parents, children and institutions and until they are capable, the institutions must be empowered to handle the registration process as per the CARA guidelines of 2011.

5. After registration, parents can get their waiting number, but are not informed about the waiting period required to get  the child, which is discouraging and painful to the parents, who are waiting for long periods for the child leading to a rise in illegal adoptions- CARA must encourage institutions to take up licenses as adoption centers as currently there is a huge imbalance in adoption centers across states, leading to fewer rehabilitation of children and fewer adoptions.

6. Parent's registration is valid for two years only. After two years they have to register again. During these years parents have no liberty to choose an agency to get a child. Parent's destiny rests with CARA alone- Parents must be assured of the child within 2 years else the registration must continue.

7. Parents are deprived of their fundamental rights of selection, by making them compulsory to register only online with CARA and not with any other agency offline which is disappointing and discomforting for many parents- Process must consider offline registration at institutions for parents who do not have access to computers.

8. Parents have to select their child by viewing six photos. Many parents would not like to select baby online, as adoption is not merely a practical decision taken by parents but It is an emotional need of every parent.

9. CARA has promised to show six children, but they show only three children on display on their site.

10. Many times it happens that all three children shown by CARA are children of special needs, in spite of the fact that families opt to have normal child preferably.

11. Within 48 hours, parents have to select child online by viewing photos, hence there is no scope for parents to think about their most important decision in their life or cope up with this new situation. This may lead to hasty and wrong decisions.

12. CARA sends email to parents to show children. If parents are not able to view these photos within two days due to some reason, they are pushed down to the bottom of the list again .Thus it becomes a compulsion for the parents  to check email box constantly.

13.  Once the child is registered, and cancelled later, the parents are pushed to the bottom of the list once again.

14. Entire adoption process should be held in front of adoption committee, which includes a government official and a Doctor. This is time consuming and embarrassing situation for parents as it reveals their identity and details to those people who are not part of adoption agency and process as well.

15. The entire matching process has become mindless and mechanical. There is no scope to match the child as per parent's looks, cultural background, mother tongue etc.eg. Keralite parents can get a child from Assam.
Elder children might face problems due to different languages of parents and children. Both of them have only fifteen days in hand to adjust themselves to this new situation and accept the online parents, without giving it much thought- Parents must be given an option to choose a preference of the institution of their choice.

16. Within fifteen days, parents have to complete the adoption process. This short period of time makes adoption expensive as they have to stay in that city for 15 days and have to bear the air fare, hotel stay which is costly.

17. In future, the number of children available will be less for adoption, because now every child will be available to NRIs as soon as they will be free for adoption. After one month a child becomes legally free for adoption, and will simultaneously be free for foreign adoption.

18. There is no provision of adoption of sibling for Indian parents.

19. It is extremely important that an emotional bond develops between adoptive parents, adoptee and adoption agency which will be acting as life time support for adoptive children, this bond can never be formed by the CARA guidelines 2015, because all processes are virtual.

20. According to CARA guidelines 2015, In case of wrong selection of child, or in case of submission of wrong home study report, or in case of adjustment issue between child and parent, no one, neither CARA, nor SARA, nor SAA is responsible for the failure of the case. Only parent and child are the sufferers.

21. According to JJ act, no authority can display photograph of destitute children for any cause. Displaying photograph of such children is violation of fundamental rights of the children. Thus these guidelines are violating the fundamental rights of the children.

22. There are near about 200 children of special needs, displayed on CARA portal, free for selection. Many of them are grown up. Displaying them on such a show-case is matter of total discouragement for them.

23. Making adoption process online will be an encouragement to illegal adoption, as online process fails to mention waiting period for parents. This also leads to decrease of social pressure by the local NGOs thus leading to child trafficking by social goons.

24. Centralization of decision and execution power to any particular agency e.g. CARA, will lead to corruption, and increase the rate of foreign adoption. As we all know that the Previous Secretary of CARA, Mr Mittal was charge sheeted by CBI for corruption.

 Kindly support the petition to improve the CARA guidelines and provide protection and care to the children.