Girls still not preferred

Newindpress, 26th April, 2008

BHAWANIPATNA: FEW come forward to adopt girl children from destitute homes in Kalahandi district. This is notwithstanding several big hoardings reading - Want to adopt? Adoption is the best means to help a child - appearing in important places of the district.So lack of interest among public to adopt destitute children may be attributed to absence of awareness or due to small number of suitable adoptive parents, said Omprakash Agrawal, treasurer-cum-liaisoning officer in-charge of Nehru Seva Sangh, an NGO dealing with child welfare, orphans and destitute.On the outskirts of Bhawanipatna in Paramanandpur, an orphanage/destitute home and Shishu Griha is being operated by the seva sangh. The Shishu Griha is running with the support of Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), Ministry of Women and Child Development, since 2003 for promotion of country adoption.At the beginning of 2006-07, 11 children were in the home. The number came down to seven after four of them were adopted.Among the seven, five are girls and two boys. Ironically, The seva sangh failed to get Central grant last year since it failed meet the criterion like 10 adoptions in a year.It is indeed a difficult job to find suitable and affluent foster parents for adoption because most of the inmates are girls, said Sarojini Dash, secretary of seva sangh. In Orissa and particularly in Kalahandi, few people volunteer to adopt girl children from Shishu Griha, said Agrawal.However, things changed for better after a leading NGO ‘Catalyst for Social Work’, Pune, dealing with child welfare stepped in. Last week twins Suniti and Suruchi (three years), inmates of the Shishu Griha, got a new home in Mumbai. Similarly, an assistant MVI from Visakhapatnam adopted three-year-old Sobha.Three-month old Shakuntala was adopted by a journalist couple from Delhi. Inside Orissa also two persons came forward to adopt girl inmates. It is difficult to find proper foster parents without intensive home study report including study of social status and income tax returns of prospective parents, Omprakash said.