30 children with special needs are waiting to be adopted in Tamil Nadu. Most of these children who have abandoned under the Cradle Baby Scheme, can improve if families show interest. Over the last 4 years, around 80 children with special needs were adopted, all by families in other countries, especially the US. A senior official from the State Department of Social Defence said: “Couples here do not want children with special needs, they see them as burdens.”

Founder of Sri Arunodayam Charitable Trust, Iyappan Subramaniam said: “Foreigners have always been more open to adopting children with disabilities. The level of awareness and acceptability is a lot more there. They treat them just like normal children.” He also mentioned that Indian parents tended to return the children due to insufficient medical support, financial constraints and stigma. The period of time to adopt the children is between 9 months and a year, whereas it is 2 years for a child without special needs.

From a total of 38 children, 30 (all aged below 5 years, except for two) were found to be medically fit for adoption. These abandoned children stay in 20 adoption centres across the state. Their conditions include mobility problems, low birth weight, and other developmental delays. They do not have severe disabilities. Clinical psychologist Selvan Roy reported that: ”In our experience, we have found that with the right attention and love, children have shown drastic improvement. There is no need to panic or worry.”