https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57264629
In India it is estimated that way over 557 children have become orphans with Covid taking their parents lives. The beginning of this article gives a few different children’s stories who lost both parents due to Covid, and are now orphans. The government has set aside a little over 13,000 for each of these kids, along with other orphan children, to access when they are 18-23 years old to have a little help due to loss of parents. Even before the pandemic, India has suffered record low adoption rates, only experience a little over 3,000 adoptions compares to the 66,000 the U.S. saw. This is an issue, as the orphanages just keep growing due to the loss of parents.
This is an important issue because not everyone thinks about how Covid has taken both parents from young children- a lot of them with little to no extended family, leaving them with no one and no place to go. As the orphanages grow, you would expect adoption rates to grow as well, but have seen such a drastic decline, especially in comparison to other countries. India has stricter adoption laws, in hopes to keep children safe, but perhaps they are too strict, or take too long that people don’t want to wait for the adoption and go somewhere else.
There is an NGO in India dedicated to helping the orphans have access to the things they need, while also promoting for additional funding for the children. They work closely with the Indian government in regards to helping with numbers, data, funding, shelters, and also awareness/ education. However, I think that laws need to change in order for India to start seeing high adoption rates, to help give these children premanate rates. Also, it is important to understand that often times the kids who age out of orphanages end up being trafficked- so it is crucial to get children out of the orphanages and into permanent houses with good families.