Union Minister Maneka Gandhi expresses displeasure over illegal adoptions

Being aware about the alleged illegal adoptions carried out by Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has directed state governments to ensure that all child care institutions are registered and linked to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) within the next one month.

“Taking cognizance of the recent cases of illegal adoptions carried out by Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi has instructed the states to get child care homes run by Missionaries of Charity all over the country inspected immediately,” said the Ministry of Women and Child Development in a statement.

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From the earlier reports we are aware that shelter home in Jharkhand run by the Mother Teresa-founded Missionaries of Charity has been reportedly involved in selling three children for money and giving away a fourth child.

Highlighting the mandatory procedure the ministry said mandatory registration of the child care homes and linking to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 which came into force more than two years ago but some orphanages had challenged the validity of this clause.

Since then the apex court has dismissed the petitions and has upheld the validity, vide their order of December 2017. Since then, approximately 2300 child care institutions have been linked to CARA and about 4000 are still pending for linkage.

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