Couples take adoption route to happiness

BHUBANESWAR: One is never too old to adopt a child. Duryodhan Rout, a 59-year-old government employee, from Keonjhar district has proved it. Rout has adopted an eight-year-old boy two months back after he lost his only son aged 28 in an accident. "I saw my son dying in front of me. I decided to adopt a child as an emotional support. I will spend rest of my life bringing him up," Rout said.
Arun Sikhar and his wife Ratna Manjari cannot stop smiling. They said their life got a new meaning after adopting a three-month-old boy. The couple was childless even after 14 years of marriage.
"The child gave us a new lease of life. Our relationship renewed and so also our social interactions," said Sikhar, a businessman from Mayurbhanj's Jashipur. Sikhar said, his 80-year-old mother insisted them to adopt a child indicating a change in mindset of people towards adoption.
People from all sections of society want to adopt a child. "Not only childless couple, but many couples with children are wanting to adopt as a company to their child. The preference for the girl child has increased in the last few years," said Sujata Mohanty, programme officer at State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA).
SARA sources said 744 children have been adopted in the country and 100 adopted inter-country from 17 adoption centres in the state from 2013 till September 2016. This includes 231 and 232 in 2014 and 2015 respectively and 196 till September 2016.
At present, 332 children are living in various adoption homes in the state of whom 261 are adoptable. Besides, there are 70 adoptable children with special needs in various homes in the state.
"Though adoption has got more social acceptability, long wait and cumbersome online process for adoption irks aspiring parents. It takes around eight months to one year for a parent to adopt a child in the state. Since the registration and document verification has become completely online it becomes difficult for not so tech-savvy people.," said Bikash Palei, who has applied for adoption. 0Official sources said since July 2015 all adoptions have been made online to bring more transparency. "There are some teething problems but it could check many loopholes and wrong practices in adoption," said Sucheta Das, another programme officer of SARA.