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Sudatta, which has been working towards removing prejudices against adoption, has opened its city chapter
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Adopted children should be told the truth. — Reuters
THIS COASTAL city, which has seen several social campaigns, is witness to one more — that of promoting adoption. After successfully launching the Mangalore chapter of Sudatta, the Bangalore-based organisation of adoptive parents, a group of concerned citizens is working towards removing preconceived notions regarding the issue.
Sudatta is forming a network of adoptive families to bring about a change in the way parents feel about adoption and to put the entire process of adoption and the life afterwards in the right perspective.
According to Dr. Saraswathi, who is involved in the mission, adoptive parents need not be apprehensive about adoption. They should not feel that it is an abnormal thing to do. In fact, she said at the launch, adoption was the most humane way of expressing oneself and one's worldview.
She said it was unfortunate that adoptive parents tend to move from their native place (from where they would have adopted the child) to some other town or city and tell the world that the adopted child is their biological offspring.
This, she said, was wrong as it threw both the parents as well as the adopted child into emotional crises. Instead, it is better to let the child as well as the society know that the child is adopted child.
She said the Indian Federation of Adoptive Families Associations (IFAFA) was founded to structure a larger network of adoptive families and organisations of adoptive families in the country.
In fact, it has already charted a preamble with seven founding associations with headquarters at Mumbai under the presidentship of Gaurang Mehta.
In the years to come, IFAFA will also work towards creating adequate support groups to bring in uniform adoption laws in the country.
Explaining the legal procedures about adoption, K.P. Vasudeva Rao, veteran legal expert of the city, said adoptions fall under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 and the Guardians and Wards Act 1890 which is executed under the Juvenile Justice Act.
Various law-executing bodies, including the police as custodian of the adoptive children and probation officers appointed by the court, are involved in the process.
However, he said, rules are now simplified and the adoption procedure will take no more than eight or nine months.
The Acts were subject to judicial review in 1992 by the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice P.N. Bhagawati.
S. Shankar, President, Chennai Chapter of Sudatta, said in south India, there are at least 100 parents in the queue to adopt a child at any given time.
Their long wait was because of lack of access to information. Sudatta and IFAFA were working jointly to bridge this gap.
Quoting sociologist David Kirk, Mr. Shankar said that it was found that some adoptive parents did not want to be a part of a support group because they tried to view themselves as `just parents' and did not want to acknowledge that the adoptive family was indeed different from the biological family.
Here, Sudatta has a role in making adoptive parents understand that there was a difference and adopted children do have biological parents. This means that they have to figure out what it means to them and their families in relation to the society they live in.
By joining support groups, parents are sensitised to their children's feelings are more open to questions, and consequently, are more able to meet their needs.
Sudatta is also a member of the Adoption Advisory Committee of the Government Karnataka by virtue of which it provides continuous inputs on parenting from various experts, access to child psychologists, workshop for parents, children and schoolteachers, and formal and informal interaction between adopted children and adoptive families.
It plans to hold various other academic and research sharing programmes from time to time.
Hilda Rayappan, Director, Prajna Counselling Centre, involved in rehabilitating street children and abandoned children, offered her help to Sudatta.
M. RAGHURAM
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