Doubly Deprived : outlookindia.com

Doubly Deprived : outlookindia.com: "Sandipan Chatterjee
The Missionaries of Charity orphanage


RACISM
Doubly Deprived
Dark-skinned babies find few takers at adoption agencies


Anuradha Raman


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When it comes to adoption, fair is forever lovely and black is never beautiful. Social workers in charge of orphanages add this grim footnote to the many happy stories of orphans being rehabilitated—dark-skinned babies find it difficult to find parents willing to adopt them.

Couples approaching these orphanages have a typical wishlist that comprises the following:
The baby should be fair;

It should have 'good features';

It should be young, preferably three months old; and

It must be in perfect health.
While official figures are hard to come by, of the 3,000 adoptions that took place in the country last year, the demand for fair-skinned babies was estimated to be as high as 65 per cent.



Most dark babies are adopted by Westerners aiming to give a child a family.


Interestingly, many of the dark-skinned children were adopted by westerners, most of whom, according to social workers, come to India with the sole aim of providing a family to a child. 'It is a charitable act, done in the service of mankind,' says J.


K. Mittal, chairman, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), a nodal government agency which oversees adoptions in the country. Mittal feels the search for a fair child is part of the Indian psyche. His associate, Sunita, says very often the reason parents cite for rejecting a child is that it is dark-skinned.

A social wo"