The Himalayan Times
2011-02-01
KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) formed a nine-member inter-country adoption committee with the objective of regulating adoptions by foreigners.
Sher Jung Karki, under secretary at the ministry said the committee’s job was to make the adoption process transparent and to handle it through an autonomous semi-government body. Prior to this, there was a recommendation committee comprising only stakeholders from government offices.
The present four-member committee has a president, counsellor and activists.
Karki said the committee would work to amend the existing adoption law to make it compatible with the present time. He said the committee would help control irregularities and maintain transparency in documents.
The committee was formed after countries regularly adopting orphans from Nepal, halted inter-country child adoption indefinitely citing irregularities, especially use of falsified documents.
Germany and Canada had banned adoption of Nepali children citing cases of abuse and use of fake documents and false statements about children’s origin and other related information. European nations, particularly Italy, France, Spain and the US are major recipients of adopted children from Nepal.
Despite the accusations, these countries have still not been able to produce a single proof of fake documents related to inter-country adoption from Nepal, said Karki.
He further added that the new committee also has the authority to probe whether documents are authentic and recommend the family matching process.
A fund has also been established within the committee to promote and protect orphanage homes and orphans from the money that the government collects as revenue from prospective parents, informed Karki.
Children homes reportedly collect US$ 5,000 for each child on completion of the adoption process, whereas prospective parents have to pay US$ 3,000 as revenue to the government.
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