Due to tough regulations, only 242 Indian children were adopted by foreign nationals in 2012.

New Delhi, Feb 23/Nationalturk – The fewer children from India are being adopted by foreigners and only 242 Indian children were adopted by foreign nationals in 2012.

“The number of children from India placed in inter-country adoptions during the 2009, 2010, 2011 (January 2011 to March 2012) and 2012 (April 2012 to December, 2012) are 666, 593, 589 and 242 respectively,” Indian Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath has said.

She said the adoptions are allowed to Indian citizens residing in the countries, which are not signatories to the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption.

“The government has revised the adoption guidelines to streamline the adoption procedures. To safeguard the interest of the adopted child, the adoption guidelines provides for post-adoption follow-up by adoption agencies for a period of two years after adoption,” added the minister.

Declining trend in adoptions can be attributed to stringent regulations

Officials said the declining trend in adoptions can be attributed to stringent regulations following concerns over child trafficking in the garb of adoption.

Of the 589 children from India who were sent for inter-country adoption in 2011, 52% went to Europe while 36% went to USA.

In 2011, China topped the list of countries which sent the maximum number (4405) of children for inter-country adoption while India was ranked eighth after Ethiopia, Russia, Colombia, Ukraine, Korea and Vietnam.

The child rights groups and activists in India have been demanding a ban on inter-country adoption till the domestic laws are strengthened to check exploitation and trafficking of children in the garb of adoption.

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk India News