ROLE
OF THE STATE GOVERNMENTS,
UNION TERRITORY
ADMINISTRATION
| List of Children's Home | List of Adoption Agencies | Inspection of Adoption Agencies | Monitoring of Performance |
3.1
The State Governments (the term "State Government" shall include Union
Territory Administration wherever applicable) shall maintain a list of all children's
homes being run for the maintenance of destitute, abandoned, orphaned, delinquent or
neglected children by voluntary/private organisations which are registered, recognised or
licensed under various laws.
3.2
The State Government shall also separately maintain a list of all agencies handling
in-country and inter-country adoption of children and shall identify those institutions/
agencies which have children who are legally free for adoption.
3.3
The State Governments shall recognise Indian adoption agencies for in-country
adoption as per the procedure laid down herein and shall forward applications of Indian
agencies seeking recognition for inter-country adoption to the Central Adoption Resource
Agency after proper verification according to the criteria laid down in these guidelines.
Each State Government shall also:
(i)
monitor the adoption programme within its jurisdiction and coordinate the
activities of placement agencies and VCAs and scrutinising agencies;
(ii)
encourage and
promote placement of eligible children on adoption or guardianship with families within
the country;
(iii)
enforce the Orphanages and other charitable homes (Supervision and Control) Act,
1960 and/or formulate suitable alternate rules in order to maintain certain minimum
standards for child care and child welfare institutions;
(iv)
inspect organisations which have applied for recognition for inter-country adoption
to the Central Adoption Resource Agency and after considering whether the applicant agency
fulfils all the requirements as laid down, forward the application to the Central Adoption
Resource Agency with its comments, and this process shall be completed within a period of
60 days. If no response is received from the
State Government within this period, the Central Adoption Resource Agency shall
immediately take up the matter at an appropriate level in the State and if no response is
received within a further period of 30 days, it shall presume that the State Government
has no objection to the grant of recognition, if the State Government is of the view that
the applicant agency should not be recognised, it shall give relevant reasons for taking
this view and forward the same to the Central Adoption Resource Agency with its comments;
(v)
form an Advisory Committee on adoption which shall have the following as members:
(a)
Secretary, Women & Child
Chairman
Development/Social Welfare/
Panchayat Raj
Women & Child Development
agencies, VCAs and scrutinising
agencies operating under the State
(d)
Three experts in the field of
Member
Social and Child welfare.
The Committee shall meet periodically
to discuss child welfare measures, specifically ways and means to promote in-country
adoption of children. The State Government
may also set up an Adoption Cell in the Directorate of Social Welfare to coordinate,
regulate and develop the work of adoption and render all assistance to the advisory form
on adoption. The tenure of such committee
shall be three years.
Inspection of Adoption Agencies
3.4
The State Government shall periodically and at least once a year, inspect or cause
to be inspected, all agencies and institutions handling in-country and inter-country
adoption as also their papers, documents and activities connected with the service of
children, generally, in order to verify:
(i)
that adoption as activity is being pursued by the organisation as a welfare measure
in the interest of children and not as a commercial activity;
(ii)
that proper records are being maintained for children admitted to the homes;
(iii)
that the children admitted are provided with basic minimum facilities for their
care, at least education and development;
(iv)
that lists of persons interested in adopting a child or taking a child under
guardianship are being maintained by the organisation regularly;
(v)
that the accounts of the organisation are being maintained and audited annually
without delay and that the auditor's reports confirm that the accounts are fair and
accurate; that any organisation which is in receipt of foreign funding is duly registered
with the Ministry of Home Affairs and has otherwise compiled with the provisions of the
Foreign Contributions (Regulations) Act, 1976;
(vi)
that the organisation is receiving regular progress reports about the well-being of
children given in adoption;
(vii)
that qualified staff having social work experience are employed by the agency
organisation to take care of the children or they have access to such staff.
3.5
The State Government shall call for information and data every quarter from all
agencies engaged in adoption in order to monitor the functioning of these agencies. The data shall be called for in a performa to be
prescribed by the Central Adoption Resource Agency.
3.6
The State Government shall take all such measure as are deemed necessary to
actively encourage in-country adoption of children in preference to inter-country
adoption. Special care/efforts shall be made
for rehabilitation of children in orphanages through placement by adoption.