5 steps to adopting a child in India
[This article has been written with inputs from Mr Avinash Kumar, Member of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) Steering Committee and Founder of Families of Joy Foundation (FoJ) — the NGO offering guidance and counselling services in adoption]
When someone asks me whether adopting my daughters was a difficult process, the natural response that comes is “no.” But then I feel the sudden need to explain my response because how can it not be difficult to legally adopt a child in a country as chaotic, bureaucratic, and complex as India. The truth is that as a country, we also try to make some things structured and sane, and thankfully a good amount of effort has gone into streamlining the adoption process in India. The process can be better, but it has come a long way in being transparent, accountable, and convenient for thousands of parents aspiring to adopt.
So what does it take to adopt a child in India? Here are the five main steps to bringing your child home.
- Register on the CARA website
The Central Adoption Resource Authority (normally referred by its acronym CARA) has created a centralised system for adoptions across India. Irrespective of the village, town, city, or state a person lives in, the person wishing to adopt a child needs to register on the online portal called Carings on the CARA website. (It’s right there on CARA’s main page). Once you login, you will fill out a few questions related to your adoption preferences, upload some KYC-type documents to prove your identity, and you are done with the first step. No mailings, no attestations, no cost, just a short online form and document upload. You will get your registration number and your spot in the queue. You are now officially a PAP (Prospective adoptive parent)! - Complete the home study
After you have registered on the Carings portal, a social worker from the adoption agency nearest to your address will conduct a home study. The purpose of the home study is to verify the information submitted during registration, to guide you about any gaps and answer any questions you may have, and to ensure that the environment of the family is conducive for the child. The social worker will also give you a form to fill out, where you get to explain your desire to adopt a child and show your readiness to do so. A sum of INR 6000 is payable by cheque to the adoption agency towards the home study expenses. The adoption agency will approve and upload your home study into the Carings system. You are now eligible to receive referral for a child. - Bring your child home under a foster care agreement
This is the exciting step. When the Carings system matches you with a child, you will get notified along with all the relevant information about the child. You will then have 48 hours to say yes or no to the child. Hopefully you will say yes and then you will visit the child care institution within two weeks to bring your child home. You will be guided about all the paperwork that you need to bring. The adoption agency will prepare the foster care documents and schedule the court date so you can get approval to take the child with you. At this step, you will pay a one-time fee of INR 40,000. This fee goes towards all the administrative and legal costs of completing the adoption process. There is no other cost or fee. - Show up for the court date
After bringing your child home, you can focus on bonding with your child. In the meantime, the adoption agency will work on getting a court date to get the adoption formally approved by a judge. When the date is set, you will need to appear at the court along with your child in the district where the agency is located. It can be a hectic day but it’s one day that you will never forget. When the judge approves the adoption and congratulates you, you are done. - Celebrate completing your child’s adoption
The adoption agency will receive the court’s formal order, based on which they will procure the birth certificate and mail it to you. Now it’s time to conduct a big puja, have a celebration with family, or take a fun vacation. Your child is officially yours!
One of the things that pleasantly surprised me during my own adoption journey is the amount of work that is taken on by the adoption agencies, child care institutions, social workers, and adoption lawyers. This reduces the parents’ work to managing our own paperwork and focusing on the child. It’s not an easy journey but it is also neither difficult nor complex. If you are hoping to adopt or just curious about it, you can find adoptive parents to talk to by requesting a family reference through Families of Joy, or ask/comment in the comments section below.
