Aizawl: Childless foreign couples, mostly from European countries, have started eying Mizoram, the only state in the Northeast india having an international adoption licence.
Recently, three couples-from Germany, France and Spain-have given a new life to three kids from a city-based orphanage.
They are the first children from Mizoram to be adopted by foreign couples.
”Adoptions for seven more children from different orphanages by foreign couples are being processed,” said Ruatfela Nu, a child rights activist and member of registered adoption agency, Friends of Children.
In-country and international adoption had involved a long process. It took more than a year for foreign families to successfully adopt an Indian baby.
The Indian government has relaxed its adoption rules to encourage more western couples to reduce the number of orphans living on the streets, and abandoned in squalid and dirty children’s homes throughout the country.
Under the new government plans couples will be able to complete the formalities in just 45 days.
”With this relaxation of rules, we are expecting more western couples to adopt children in orphanages in Mizoram,” Ruatfela Nu said.
There are four recognised adoption agencies in Mizoram which have registered about 300 prospective adoptive parents (PAPs). However, only a little more than 100 kids have been adopted from orphanages as most of the PAPs failed to meet the criteria.
”To adopt a child, a couple has to be financially secure and physically healthy. They should own a house and their combined age should not be higher than 90 years. They should be free of criminal past,” Ruatfela Nu said.
Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), an autonomous body under the ministry of women and child development, government of India, has laid down strict guidelines for adoption in India and abroad.
An official in the state social welfare department said it was due to the laudable performance of the state adoption cell that CARA had given adoption licence to Mizoram, among the Northeast states.
At present, there are about 1200 children in about 30 orphanages and children’s homes in Mizoram.
Child activists said there has been an increase of unwanted babies in the Christian-dominated state during the last few years.
An abandoned eight-month-old baby girl was found on a road in Ramhlun locality here on the night of October nine, while a foetus suspected to be an aborted baby was found the next day near a place of worship in Kulikawn locality.
Another body of a newly-born was found near a road in Mizoram-Manipur border Pawlrang hamlet on October 22.
A social worker says that the recent spurt in ‘infanticide’ and ‘foeticide’ in the state may be due to increase in the population of ethnic Mizos from Myanmar and Manipur.
Ruatfela Nu, who is also a member of the state Child Welfare Committee (CWC), said abortion among the unmarried women is prevalent.
She also said many commercial sex workers who were drug addicts or alcoholics were not serious about raising children.
The CWC has taken up 1,100 cases of children in need of protection and care since 2005 and a majority of the cases were for admission in orphanages and children homes.
With the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Indian laws on protection of child rights advocating raising of children in normal families, social workers and law enforcement officials want to avoid admission of orphans and abandoned children in orphanages and homes.
”In-country and foreign adoption is an ideal solution to solve the problem of rising orphans in the state,” she said. (UNI)