US, Italy led foreigners

More Girls than boys

BENGALURU: Maharashtra and Karnataka, the two leading states in domestic adoptions account for a whopping 30% of all domestic adoptions in the country between April 2016 and March 2017. India adopted more girls than boys, natural as more girl children found themselves without homes—and South India recorded the maximum adoptions.According to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), of the 2,717 adoptions reported in the said period, the two states account for 813 together, with Maharashtra leading the table for another year with 613 adoptions, while Karnataka recorded 200.The six southern state, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, together accounted for 47% of all adoptions with 1,278 children adopted in these states.After Maharashtra and Karnataka, Odisha took third place with 187 adoptions followed by Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with 178 each. States in east India have fared poorly with most of them not crossing double digits and Arunachal Pradesh has reported zero adoptions.Overall, the number of children adopted in 2016-17 has reduced compared to the previous year, which saw 3,011 adoptions. In fact, adoptions have been on the decline notwithstanding amendments to the guidelines aimed at encouraging more Indians to adopt having been put in place. The 3,011 adoptions in 2015-16 was a decline from 3,988 the previous year.The inter-country adoption during the same period saw 528 children, a slight dip from 666 the previous year. Adoptions were led primarily by people from the US and Italy. The two countries together accounted for 58% of all adoptions at 305. The US recorded 202 cases, while Italy saw 103.Analysing the gender-wise data shows that both foreigners and Indians adopted more number of girls, which experts say is natural as most agencies have more girls looking for homes than boys in the country.While 1,591, or 58% of domestic adoptions involved a girl child, 399 or 75% of all adoptions by foreigners were of girls, in line with the trend over the past four years.And, more number of girls continue to wait at various specialised adoption agencies in the country. According to separate data, a total of 3,722 children are presently waiting to find parents at such agencies across the country, of whom 2,206 are girls. While 1,796 of these are ready for adoption, 1,976 of them are yet to be declared legally free for adoption.