Adoption in India: Policies and Experiences

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SAGE Publications, Apr 2, 2014 - Business & Economics - 296 pages
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Adoption in India is a pioneering study on child adoption in India. Challenging some of the prevailing theories on adoptive parenting through empirical data, It examines the issues that impinge on the development of adopted children in India. Importantly, this is the first book to give space to the voices of children.

The book is divided into two sections. The first deals with the macro-level issues of child adoption and discusses

- historical and global perspectives concerning adoption;
- theoretical paradigms, problems of research design and evaluation of research outcomes in adoption studies; and
- the Indian socio-political and socio-cultural contexts and contemporary adoption practices.

The second section provides a micro-level analysis of individual families and highlights

- The issues that come up while researching adoption in the Indian contexts; and
- experiences of parents and children, which have been collated to facilitate an understanding of the phenomenon of adoption at various stages of the child’s development.

A distinguishing feature of this book is that it effectively combines both macro and micro issues with qualitative and quantitative methodologies to give a comprehensive construal of adoption. The life-cycle approach (which helps to map the continuities and transformations in the behaviour of adopted children), ethnographic studies of adoptive families and the author’s personal story as an adoptive parent have been combined to provide the reader with an empathetic understanding of the adoptive parent and child. As a result, this book will be widely welcomed by parents of adopted children, policy-makers, counsellors, adoption agencies and those working on the rights of children. It will be of equal interest to students and scholars of child development, psychology and social work.

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About the author (2014)

Vinita Bhargava, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Childhood Studies at Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi. She is also Member, Adoption Recommendation Committee, Central Adoption Resource Agency, Government of NCT of Delhi. Together with undertaking research projects, she teaches courses in child development, research methods, early childhood care and education, and child welfare. Prior to joining Lady Irwin College in 1986, she worked with the Social Work and Research Centre, Tilonia (1979–82) and the Institute of Social Studies Trust (1982–84). Dr. Bhargava has worked with various agencies in the field of adoption policy and practice in India. She has been the Chairperson of the Coordinating Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency (CVARA) since 1996. As a founder member of the Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), an autonomous, nodal agency set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, and the ‘NOC’ committee member for screening applications for inter-country adoptions, she has contributed significantly to national policies on adoption. She has held executive positions in the All-India Women’s Education Fund Association and the Indian Association for Family Therapy. She has written numerous papers and reports, as well as a manual for trainers in early childhood development for the Government of the Maldives. Dr. Bhargava and her husband have two children, one of whom is adopted. They have founded a support group for adoptive parents called APNA (Alternative Parenting Network Association) in New Delhi.

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