Child adoption cost set for a major hike

The one time cost that prospective adoptive parents pay the government towards child care will be almost doubled beginning next month. Nandini R Iyer reports.

The one time cost that prospective adoptive parents pay the government towards child care will be almost doubled beginning next month.

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For Indian parents, this would mean paying R40,000 to the Child Care Fund (the present fee is R2,5000) in addition to the R5,000 that they pay for their home getting investigated, also known as home study fee, by government agencies.

Foreigners will pay $5,000 or R2,27,749 instead of the current $3,500 or R159,267. And they will continue paying the home study fee to agencies in their home countries.

This came out at sidelines of a function to launch the Central Adoption Resource Authority’s new web initiative Carings. Minister for women and child development Krishna Tirath said the adoption guidelines were being revised and would be announced soon.

While India as a state does not charge any money for adoptions, all prospective parents are required to make their mandatory contribution to the Child Care Fund.

The authority’s new web initiative will allow wannabe parents to check online against an interactive list of questions whether they are at all eligible to adopt a child.

It will also allow parents to check online the status of their applications. “The new guidelines will have specified timelines for various stages of the application process and prospective parents will be able to log in and check online at each stage whether their forms were processed in the right time. If not, they can approach the authorities with a complaint,” Tirath said.

Once a child has been matched by the adoption agency to a couple, the parents will also have online access to details concerning the child’s health and behavioural traits. To preserve the child’s identity, this information will be only provided once the child has been matched to a couple.