In a move to make inter-country adoption easier for Non-Resident Indians, Overseas Citizens of India and foreign nationals, the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) plans to set up an online portal for prospective parents to track the status of their applications.
CARA, the nodal body for adoption of Indian children, comes under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The need for information window for overseas applicants came after an interaction on Facebook between the authorized foreign adoption agency (AFAA), the prospective parents, and the CARA CEO, Lt. Col. Deepak Kumar.
Sandarine Perrotton, a member with AFAA in Spain, had asked the CARA CEO for a tool, which would help parents check their status on the waiting list, so that they could “comfort the families in their wait and keep them informed”.
This was echoed by NRI families on the same forum, who said that Indians residing abroad need a way to track their application online. Paying heed to these requests, CARA is introducing an online module which will, according to Kumar, “give such parents direct access to information which until now they could not get on their own”.
He said: “Parents often get anxious when an authorized foreign adoption agency fails to update them on important information and we are trying to bridge that gap”.
To get access to the portal once it is ready, domestic applicants can register directly with the CARA website while prospective parents from outside India will have to send in their application via AFAA or a central authority (CA) to CARA.
A user name and password will be given to the overseas applicants so that they can cross-check that the details filled by AFAA are according to their specifications. With the online module, they will be able to track whether their application has been approved, what their place on the waiting list is, the children referred to them and their profiles.
“We will be able to ensure greater transparency and provide better services to parents who often complain about how the agency they are dealing with is clueless on the status of their application and is not able to provide information on time. We will also have fewer grievances,” Kumar added.
In 2016-2017, a total 578 inter-country adoptions and 3,210 domestic adoptions took place in India, according to the CARA website.