India achieved a record-breaking 4,515 child adoptions in financial year 2024-25, the highest in 12 years, as per data released by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Key Highlights
Total Adoptions in FY 2024-25: 4,515 (Highest since 2012-13, when 4,354 adoptions were recorded).
Domestic Adoptions: 3,950
International Adoptions: 565 (Reflecting a growing global interest in adopting Indian children).
New Children Added to Adoption Pool: 8,598
New Adoption Agencies Established: 245 (In coordination with state governments to streamline adoption procedures).
Significance: This surge marks a return to pre-pandemic adoption levels, which had declined during the COVID-19 crisis.
Reasons Behind Surge in Adoptions
Streamlined Adoption Procedures: CARA has simplified adoption regulations, making the process more efficient.
Increased Awareness Campaigns: Awareness drives have encouraged more people to opt for adoption.
Supportive Legal Framework: Reforms in adoption laws and digitization have improved the adoption process.
Supreme Court Directives: A nationwide child identification exercise ensured better categorization of children eligible for adoption.
Challenges in Adoption Process
Demand-Supply Imbalance:
- Registered Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs): 33,000+
- Legally Available Children for Adoption: Only 2,141
- This highlights an urgent need for reforms to legally clear more children for adoption.
Need for Faster Clearance Process: The adoption clearance and legal processing time must be reduced to ensure more children find permanent homes.
Ensuring Transparency and Ethical Practices: Strict monitoring is required to prevent malpractices in the adoption process.
About CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority)
- Established: 1990
- Governing Body: Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India
- Legal Framework: Operates under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
- Mandate: Regulates in-country and inter-country adoptions of Indian children.
- Hague Convention: Recognized as the Central Authority for Inter-country Adoptions under the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993 (ratified by India in 2003).
CARA’s Role in Strengthening Adoption System
State and Virtual Training Programs
- Conducted physical state orientations in 12 states and UTs.
- Organized 45 virtual training sessions covering adoption timelines, foster care, adoption counseling, and training for Child Welfare Committees (CWCs).
Adoptive Parent Meetings
- CARA partnered with 16 states to organize meets with adoptive parents from October 2024 to January 2025.
Child Identification and Categorization
- Conducted a nationwide child identification exercise as per Supreme Court directives.
- Categorized children into five groups: Abandoned; Orphaned; Surrendered; Children with unfit guardians; Children with no visitation rights.
New Adoption and Foster Care Initiatives
- Launched foster care and foster adoption modules on the CARINGS portal to help older children find family-based alternate care.
- Introduced digital interventions to streamline adoption procedures for greater transparency and efficiency.
- Implemented data cleansing initiatives and provisions under the Adoption Regulations, 2022 on the CARINGS portal.
- Added new modules for relative and step-parent adoptions, reducing the average processing time to just 3-4 months.