One of the most overlooked problems of India is its abysmal adoption rate. According to UNICEF, India has about 29.6 million orphaned and abandoned children. In disconcerting figures provided by Childline India Foundation (CIF) supported by the women and child development ministry showed that in 2017, of these 30 million children (which is most likely an under-reported figure), there were only 470,000 children in institutionalized care. And of these roughly half a million children, only a fraction finds its way into family care because adoption rates in India are abysmally low. This leads to another big problem - child labour.
There are 33 million child labourers between the ages of 5-18 years in India as per Census 2011 data and 10.13 million between the ages of 5-14 years. Considering that there are 444 million children in India under the age of 18, they form 37% of the total population in the country. Therefore child labour in the country in real figures boils down to 10 million kids involved in various occupations across hazardous sectors.
The low adoption rate does not apply to children alone - stray dogs are in huge numbers as well - An estimated 35 million stray dogs live in India. And according to the World Health Organization (WHO), India faces about 18,000 to 20,000 cases of rabies every year. According to the WHO report, an estimated 45% of all deaths from the disease occur in South- East Asia, out of which about 36% of the world’s deaths from rabies happen in India itself.
Addressing the above problems, we propose to build a platform (Web and Mobile) that will significantly simplify the process of adoption.
First off, we can connect Orphanages across the country via the platform by making use of CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) resources. Parents who are looking to adopt children can then make use of the service to apply for the adoption process.
Statistics have stated that out of around 30 million children, only approximately 470,000 children find themselves in institutionalized care. This is a deficient percentage. To solve this issue, we can make use of the platform to post reports about orphaned child labourers, homeless children, beggars and children who are not being adequately cared for by their parents/guardians. The concerned authorities can make use of these reports and rescue these children. These children can then be adopted by orphanages and institutions which will take care of them by providing them with food, shelter, health care and education.
Next, the service can be used to post information about available pet adoptions - i.e. if pet owners want to put up their pets for adoption - this will ensure that their pets don't end up as strays. Animal Welfare Organizations can put up vaccinated and sterilized street dogs, cats etc. and rescues up for adoption. To make sure that the pets end up with the right people, we can take help of the Animal Welfare Organizations that will check on whether the adopted pets are being adequately cared for or not.
Spreading awareness will be the best way to make sure that this platform serves the purpose which it is built for. And therefore, once the platform reaches a particular stage, fundraisers will be held to support the service even further. The funds collected can be used to develop orphanages and NGOs.