Community Question Bank

A home study is a report, valid for 3 years, conducted by the Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) closest to your residence to determine your eligibility and suitability to adopt a child, and it includes details like social and economic status, family background, description of home and atmosphere therein and health status. This report will be completed within 30 days of your registration, and posted on the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS). Please see here for more information.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has issued the following guidelines for adoption during the pandemic:

Guidelines regarding children:

Avoid unwarranted physical contact with the child. Only primary caregivers should interact with the child while maintaining due precautions.

Coordinate the social investigation of the child over phone and emails, with only essential physical visits (if required).

Follow up on police reports through phone calls and emails.

Restrict visits to the Child Welfare Committee, and prefer virtual interactions.

Do not use social media platforms for declaring a child legally free for adoption. Communicate orders passed by the State governments or the State Adoption Resource Authority immediately to the designated recipient through emails.

Guidelines regarding parents:

Relax the timing for preparing the Home Study Report 1 month to 3 months. The social worker must conduct at least one physical visit for the Prospective Adoptive Parents’ (PAPs) home study report. However, most of the counselling and meetings will be done online.

Specialised Adoption Agencies should use the digital medical examination report module for completing the medical examination of children.

All information about the child for referral of the PAPs should be uploaded immediately on the CARINGS database. The Specialised Adoption Agency must immediately answer any queries asked by the PAPs.

Juvenile Justice Courts must try to fast track adoption cases, and to conduct the hearings online through video conferencing.

If you want to adopt or to know more information on the legal adoption procedure, read the Nyaaya explainer on ‘Adoption’.

The following authorities do adoption work in India:

• Central Adoption Resource Authority – It is the central authority in charge of monitoring and regulating adoptions in India, receiving applications for inter-country adoptions, maintaining a database of children to be adopted, etc. Each state has a subset of this authority known as the State Adoption Resource Agency which works for the promotion, facilitation, monitoring and regulation of adoption in the states.
• Child Welfare Committee – It takes cognizance of the children brought before it, conducts enquiry and declares them free for adoption, etc.
• District Child Protection Unit – It aims to identify orphan, abandoned and surrendered children in the district and get them declared legally free for adoption by Child Welfare Committee, tracking the progress of children legally free for adoption, etc.
• Specialized Adoption Agencies – It is responsible for the care, protection and well-being of every child in its charge, and works for their needs.

The following authorities are in-charge of inter-country adoptions (adoption of children who are foreigners or foreigners adopting Indian children):

• Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency – It registers the prospective adoptive parents interested to adopt children from India and completes their Home Study Report, provides orientations to the parents about the child’s culture, etc.
• Indian Diplomatic Missions – It registers the adoption applications of Non-Resident Indian Prospective Adoptive Parents or Overseas Citizens of India in the Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System, and processes them, etc.