Indian expats across the Gulf register to adopt children

Around 40 Indian expatriates in the UAE and the Gulf have come forward to adopt children from their home country after their government lifted a 16-month ban.

Rajesh and Sowmya Nair, one of about 40 Indian couples who applied to adopt a child from their homeland after an expat ban was lifted. Courtesy Rajesh Nair

DUBAI // About 40 Indian expatriate couples in the UAE and across the Arabian Gulf have applied to adopt children from their home country after their government lifted a 16-month ban.

The prospective parents have all registered with representatives in the UAE in the past four months.

Indian authorities abruptly stopped accepting adoption applications from non-resident nationals in October 2012 on the grounds that too few children were available for adoption. In February this year, The National reported that the process had been reopened.

“I have been inundated with calls and applications,” said Omana Menon, who is licensed by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) in New Delhi to process overseas adoptions in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf.

“Since February I have registered 40 new cases in Cara’s online system. Every first working day of the month, the system opens for a few hours and we have to register as many cases as possible.”

One of them is Rajesh Nair, 32, a project manager in Qatar. He said he and his wife, Sowmya, took the decision to adopt after trying for six years to have a child of their own.

“We travelled to Dubai this month to meet Mrs Menon and initiate the process,” said Mr Nair, who wants to adopt a child under one year old.

“Instead of getting depressed about not having a child, we want to make our life more meaningful and purposeful. To love and to be loved is the existence of life. Hence, we have decided to go for adoption.

“A child is born from a mother’s womb but we believe an adopted child is born from the parents’ soul.”

When a couple registers with the UAE representative, it takes Cara three months to identify an orphanage. After this, the wait is at least another two years.

For many anxious families, it is a heart-wrenching delay.

“We understand the minimum wait is two years but we are mentally preparing for it to take longer,” said Elizabeth, an expat in Dubai, who asked for only her first name to be given.

The 39-year-old, who has a seven-year-old daughter, was one of the first parents to register after the process was reopened.

“A couple of years down the line, we don’t know where we will be,” she said. “My daughter asks how old she will be before she has a sibling – but I guess it will happen when the time is right.”

Indian media recently reported that there were about 2,400 children waiting to be adopted, yet prospective parents were often told children were not available.

“We have been waiting for four and a half years,” said A V, a sales manager in Dubai who registered to adopt a child in 2009.

“We have been repeatedly told there are no children available, which is hard to believe in a country like India. We need clarity on the process and it should be professionally handled by the embassy or the consulate. We don’t mind paying for the services.”

Mrs Menon said she was trying to push the authorities to reduce waiting times and lobby for overseas Indians to be given the same priority as residents. Currently, they are treated as foreign parents.

Indian officials promised shorter waiting times after the new government was elected last month.

“We have undertaken a comprehensive study of our adoption system,” said Shankar Aggarwal, a secretary at Delhi’s ministry of women and child development.

“Parents should not wait for long. We are trying to reduce the gap. The waiting period may only be four months soon.”

The review, which will be completed in two weeks, will ensure the process is faster, simpler and will enable parents to track applications electronically.

But laws have to be changed for non-residents to be treated as domestic Indians, said Mr Aggarwal.

“Unless we change the law or make special categories, we have to treat NRIs as foreigners,” he said. “We will have better clarity in two weeks time.”