New Delhi, March 17, 2005
A US-based couple's struggle to take their Indian
baby home may have finally come to an end, but the
country's complex adoption laws continue to intimidate,
confound and keep prospective parents away.
Shirish and April Balachandra got the final orders
Tuesday to take home Chhaaya, a 17-month-old girl
child, as the district court cleared the way for her
legal guardianship.
"Chhaaya is free. She is ours!" an ecstatic
April Balachandra told IANS.
The Balachandras had lost almost everything - job,
money, home and peace - but not their will to adopt
Chhaaya, whom they got from one of the capital's several
orphanages in August last year.
The couple were given a no objection certificate
but not the final papers that would let them take
Chhaaya home to the US. They have been caring for
Chhaaya since then in Delhi.
"It has been a frustrating seven months. We
just need to get out of India as soon as possible
to regain some semblance of sanity," Shirish
said.
The couple's determination to get the child has put
the spotlight on the problems of both Indians and
foreigners in adopting a child. Their seven-month
ordeal is symptomatic of the complexities involved
in giving a decent home to an Indian orphan.
Their case is one of the more than 250 cases in the
Delhi High Court - over 160 domestic and 80 inter-country
- waiting to be cleared. In a country with an estimated
12.4 million orphans and only 5,000 adoptions per
year the inevitable question seems to be - must India's
adoption laws be so intimidating and so tough?
Adoptions in India are governed by two laws. The
Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA), 1956, provides
adoption rights to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.
All other religious groups have to go through the
Guardians and Wards Act (GAWA) 1890, which gives adopting
couples "guardianship" but not "parenthood".
GAWA also applies to foreigners, who are thereafter
permitted to take the child out of the country and
adopt them under their country's laws.
It is not just the Balachandras, who live abroad,
who fall under the 'GAWA trap'. Delhi scientist Gauhar
Hashmi received a note from a government official
in February saying his nine-year-old daughter Seher
"did not qualify to be a member of his family".
Seher, who was adopted eight years ago by the Hashmis,
could not be an official member of the family as GAWA
only bestows guardianship and not parenthood. So technically
Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews are barred from
adopting from India.
"Not a single objection has been raised till
date in my case. Yet I have waited for more than seven
months because the court simply refuses to entertain
adoption cases," said Mohit Bhatnagar, also an
NRI who has been in India since September to see through
the process of adopting 14-month-old Arul.
Adding to the delay has been the district judge's
ruling of January 2004 that all inter-country adoption
cases be transferred under the Juvenile Justice Act
2000 and to the Juvenile Justice Board. This was aimed
at assessing the relevance of the Juvenile Justice
Act instead of GAWA for inter-country adoptions.
Adoptive parents moved the Delhi High Court against
the order, which stayed the transfer of any adoption
case to the Juvenile Justice Board. The high court
also gave the district judge a three-week deadline
to dispose of adoption cases under HAMA. A few days
later on March 3, it directed a district court to
clear all GAWA cases within 21 days.
The labyrinth of legal procedures puts off many people.
Of course, some like the Balachandras persist despite
it.
As a blissfully ignorant Chhaaya ambled around their
friend's Gurgaon home that the couple have been staying
in, April said: "All I wanted is to have Chhaaya
for my own. I forget all the frustrations and irritations
the moment I see her face.
"I am ready to go through it all over again
for her."
(IANS)
