Click to play videoNew Delhi: In the CNN-IBN series Baby Snatchers, we brought you the ugly side of adoptions in India and how some adoption agencies flout all rules and get away with it.
However, here is another side to the story, a story on how adoptions might help fight the bias against the girl child.
Three-year-old Rukmini is not just a water baby. She's also the joy in her parents' lives.
The little girl was adopted by Aparna and Sai Krishna three years ago when she was just six months old.
So delighted were they by Rukmini that they adopted a second baby girl in September last year and a tiny three-month-old Madhavi came home.
Says Sai Krishna, "We didn't have children for nearly seven years of our marriage and then we just decided to adopt."
Aparna and Sai are just one of the several couples in Delhi who have adopted baby girls.
According to the Central Adoption Research Agency (CARA), not only have adoptions increased in the last decade, but now there are even waiting lists for girl children.
Says Honorary General Secretary, Delhi State Child Welfare Department, A V Kumar, "What we are seeing is that the attitudes have changed especially among the younger generation. There is very little gender bias."
Adoption lawyer Rekha Gupta adds, "Earlier we were doing only 20 per cent Hindu adoption cases. As of today we do nearly 60-80 per cent of adoption cases."
Two-and-a half year old Tara is also a part of this emerging trend.
Her mother, Mamta Govil is a single parent who chose to become a mother rather than get married.
A single woman raising a little girl by herself may seem difficult, but Govil had tremendous family support.
Not only that, she says society has grown up almost as fast as the kids.
There are absolutely no stigmas attached. There are a few raised eyebrows but that's all. In fact a lot of people feel a some envy. They think, 'I wonder why I didn't do this," says Mamta.
In Palna, a Children's home run by DSCWD, more than 300 children have found adoptive parents in the last couple of years, out of these close to 200 were girl children.
Adoption comes from the heart, but the process of adoption comes from the law. So though the city has over the past few years shown a beautiful trend that has given a whole new meaning to adoption, couples and experts feel that a lot more could be done in this field if the laws were made more enabling than restrictive.
Delhi may be known for its skewed sex ratio, a city that sees thousands of girl children abandoned every year, yet, there's a different side to this city.
In numerous homes, parenthood is now being defined not by the laws of biology but by the laws of love.
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