Central Adoption Resource Authority

Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is one that is associated with the legal adoption of Indian children. It was the year 1990 when CARA came into existence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act,1990, However, after nine years, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment gave it Autonomous Status. From then on, this agency is working tirelessly to find caring families for orphan children.

This agency’s power is not just limited to Indian territory, but also to a Non- Resident Indian living abroad who can adopt a relative’s child with some legal approval. In 2003, For Inter-Country Adoption, CARA became a signatory to the Hague Convention On Protection of Children and Co-operation of 1993.
In 2016, CARA attained the Status of Statutory Body by the Government of India initiation which made it the nodal body to look after all the cases related to adoption. CARA consists of one Secretary, CEO, and approx. 27 officers and staff regulating the whole process of making it possible for adoptive parents.

Principles of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA): 

• There are certain fundamental principles on which CARA works i.e.,
• The interest and consent of the child matter a lot.
• For Adoption Placement, Adoptive Parents who are Indian citizens and more or less have the same socio-economic conditions as the child shall be given preference.
• Whole documentation shall be done on both Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS) and some confidential matters submitted to CARA.

Legal Framework Governing Adoption in India:

• Earlier in 2000, Indian citizens who are Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, or Buddhists are allowed to legally adopt a child under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA) of 1956 which was a modern version of Hindu Law eliminating Gender-based discrimination provisions.
• Non-Hindus such as Muslims, Christians and Parsis, etc were allowed to take guardianship under the Guardians and Wards Act of 1890 until the children reach the age of 21 years. Though they do not have any provision for adoption in their personal law.
• With the enactment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, has given the legal right to every religion to adopt a child along with Hindus even if the personal laws of the particular religion do not permit it.
• JJ Act and HAMA work parallelly just with one difference i.e, Under HAMA, without the intervention of government bodies, Hindus can adopt a child with certain predefined terms and conditions while JJ Act is completely secular law for adoption under the supervision of the government. 

Eligibility to legally Adopt a Child in India:

• There are certain procedures and eligibility criteria that need to be followed to get a green signal for adoption. Some of them are-
• Physical, Mental, and emotional stability of an adoptive person.
• The minimum difference between the children and either of the prospective adoptive parents must not be less than 25 years.
• Couples having more than four children are considered ineligible for adoption.
• A single male cannot adopt a female child. 
• Adoptive couples must have two years of stable marital affairs.
• Certain age of the child and adoptive parents or single prospective parents is taken into consideration.
  For instance, for adopting a child aged between 4-8 years then both adoptive parents’ age must be added and should be up to 100 years (45+55, or anything), for single parents, the age must be 50 years.

Why in the news?

• This Authority has come into the limelight in recent times because of COVID. Between 2020-21, Most children lost their parents and were left alone without a support system in this earthly world. Therefore, more pressure has been built on CARA in terms of fastening the pace of adoption though, besides the relaxation given by the central government on its procedural work, CARA is still lagging far behind. Therefore, it is crucial for this statutory body to take its procedure up to that level so that children can get good parental support in no time.
• The working process of CARA is quite lengthy and time taking which sometimes results in discouragement among Adoptive parents and it even becomes more complicated after allowing NRIs for adoption as per the Hague convention. It’s just like one seeking Justice which takes time and patience to come to a just conclusion. Same with Adoption, Determining the suitability and Sound of the parents plead for more time and patience.
• Recently, the Supreme Court has asked to respond to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition about the NGOs working and private institutions towards Adoption.

According to UNICEF, In India, more than 2 lakhs children were living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) out of which, only a fraction of them (3,000 or so) make it to the legal Adoption Placement and finally to adoptive parents concerned many scholars and NGOs about the declining graph of a number of adoptions in India.

Reforms Needed:

Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is working with many stakeholders such as the Specialized Adoption Agency (SAA), State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) and Foreign Agencies etc. But in the end, what matters to orphaned, surrendered or abandoned children is to get a family and for that CARA needs to look into some much-required changes which include-

1. Reducing unpredictability and time period of its whole procedure plus digitalising this whole procedure with physical mode documentation.
2. Identifying those NGOs and IFVs institutions which are illegally taking charge of children increases the possibility of human trafficking.

Conclusion:

CARA is definitely a boon however to make it effective, reformation needs to be done on the way as one or the other Indians are coming forward for taking up the path of adoption which also indirectly influences the population birth rate strata of the nation.
Let’s not make any orphaned surrendered or abandoned children refrain from getting a happy life and adoptive parent support and might end up facing legal and delayed consequences.