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Building a better tomorrow
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Adoption, if chosen as a preferred option, offers a win-win situation for childless couples to invest their emotions in a meaningful manner, by building a better tomorrow for children who are less fortunate...
Adoption is a down-to-earth personal choice and life-long commitment to enrich our own life and family by extending our heart to an unknown child. On the one hand our mass media has made glitz and glamour synonymous with foster-parenting, with celebrities adopting children from so-called third world countries; while on the other hand statistics confirm the crescendo of adoptions throughout the world, especially in the US and Canada. While for many new-age families adoption has become the first-choice option, for some it still remains the last resort after their unfortunate failure to conceive a child through natural and/or artificial methods.
Many adoptive parents and adopted children concur that the yearning to learn about one's heritage or DNA is only natural, perhaps even inevitable. But the nurturing a child gets after adoption, the life-skills he/she learns, the early growth environment and day-to-day family-life experiences play the most pivotal role in shaping the child's personality and outweigh any of the genetic doubts he/she may have. This definitely reaffirms the importance of the role parenting plays in producing well-adjusted and successful individuals as world citizens.
A long way to go:
Here again the differences between attitude and statistics differ internationally in comparison to India. Adoption is openly discussed abroad with many support groups for adoptive families and programs available for information, advice and guidance. In comparison, the adoption subject per se is not yet out in the open in India. Be that as it may, this in no way negates the altruism behind adoption nor takes away the nobility of the few who venture to adopt children who deserve a better deal in life.
Although persistent and continuous efforts by Government and NGOs continue to spearhead efforts to actualise and uphold a standardised adoption procedure and legalise the adoption procedure itself to an international set of rules, recent reports suggest tell another, perhaps confusing story. For example, allegations against Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who recently adopted a boy from Russia, suggest that despite the best efforts to enforce and put in place international legislation that should transcend sovereignty laws and ensure a worldwide standardisation in the entire adoption process, there are glitches in the system. Jolie, who is also the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was in the centre of the recent controversy (Jolie Kickstarts Adoption Row, The Times of India, Nov. 15, 2004, p16), which, ironically enough, revolved around not following international adoption procedures for a baby boy. According to news reports, Jolie had visited orphanages in person on a tour to Russia before the adoption. Under regulations, "Potential foreign foster-parents are supposed to choose a child from a central register with the help of photographs, etc." It would seem Jolie's emotions ran contrary to Russian adoption rules and the incident has fuelled an unfortunate debate in Russia, angering the pro-Nationalists who are by and large opposed to foreign adoptions as a rule, seeing them as a slur to Russian pride and honour.
Spreading light:
Since we are a long way from real globalisation, the adoption process differs from region to region and between countries and is subject to national, regional and international statutes as of now. Given the constraints of space, for the purpose of this article we will concentrate on the process in the Indian state of Maharashtra, with a general caveat applicable in all parts of the world. If you are interested in adopting a child, please contact a registered Government adoption agency in your local area. A good starting point would be www.adoption.com with its portals linked to registered Government agencies in North America, Europe and Asia.
The rules and regulations:
In the last two decades efforts have been made to concentrate on the Rights of Children as opposed to just expediting the adoption legalities and procedures. Sudha Kinney, one of the pioneers and founders of The Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (formed in the early 70's in Mumbai) says, "In the early 1960's it was much easier to adopt children and there were no real records of adoptions. It was more casual especially if done between families. Back then you were just required a Notary's signature and you could re-locate children even to other parts of the world. Today it's more regulated and stringent. We try and keep meticulous records of the placements, and try to see that the child's feelings are taken into consideration."
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