India Records World’s Highest Number of Adoptions: Over 4,500 Children Adopted

According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India saw 4,515 child adoptions in FY 2024–2025, the most in the previous 12 years. 

The Ministry stated that 4,155 of the total were domestic adoptions, indicating the nation's increasing acceptance of legal adoption.

New Adoption Centres in India

Data from the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), which added 8,598 new children to the adoption pool, enabled this robust identification drive. CARA falls under the Ministry of Women and Child Development as a statutory entity.

The adoption procedure was also streamlined by the establishment of 245 new adoption agencies in collaboration with state governments.

Training and Awareness Campaigns for Adoption

The Ministry credited the progress in adoption to awareness campaigns and special training efforts:

• CARA conducted 45 virtual training sessions.
• The sessions covered topics like adoption timelines, training of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) members, foster care, and counseling for adoptive parents and children.
• CARA also held in-person orientation programs in 12 states and union territories.

Additionally, from October 2024 to January 2025, CARA organized meetings with adoptive parents in collaboration with 16 states.

Supreme Court Directives for Adoption

Following directions from the Supreme Court, CARA began a detailed identification program for children. Children were placed into five groups:

1. Orphans
2. Abandoned
3. Surrendered
4. Unfit guardians
5. Children without visitation

The Ministry stated that the goal of this strategic initiative was to ensure that more children would have access to a safe and nurturing home by bringing them into the legal adoption framework.

New Programs for Older Children

Additionally, new programs were launched by CARA to improve alternative family-based care. To guarantee that older children are placed in family-based alternative care, CARA added foster care and foster adoption modules to the CARINGS portal in 2024.

Adoption in Just 3-4 Months

To make the adoption process clearer and efficient, digital tools were used. The CARINGS portal now includes updates related to:

• Data correction and cleanup
• Adoption Regulations, 2022
• Faster processing of adoptions

Thanks to these updates, the time taken for processing in-country relative and stepparent adoptions was reduced to just 3–4 months.