Women with adopted children are looked at with a staunch sense of disapproval. The discrimination is partly owed to the taboo around adoption and the rest concerns the sanctification of motherhood. It is indeed ironic that with the kind of stifling emphasis placed on motherhood, a woman who embraces it through unconventional means is criticized. Indian society is simply too hard set on the traditional idea of a family. The taboo against adoption is one of the manifold problems that stem from this dogma. Adoption is a sharp deviation from established conventions of ‘family’ and ‘lineage’ and a woman who pursues it is met with social and cultural disapproval. The fundamental purpose of marriage, in India, is to protract the family line. On this ground, adopting a child is viewed as counterintuitive. Too much value is placed on the strait-laced notions of passing on the blood line and family genes.
With infertility rates in India skyrocketing there has been a significant advancement in medical intervention. With so many infertility treatment centres mushrooming, couples have an opportunity to exhaust their chances at conception. Adoption most often than not is not considered an option. When a woman chooses to adopt, she is most often assumed to be infertile. Though there is much awareness in urban areas regarding infertility, a considerable section of the Indian population still places the blame on women. Such ‘barren’ women, a very cruel and offensive term, are ostracized and subjected to humiliation. The same understanding extends to the perception of adoptive mothers and a similar treatment is meted out to them.
The growing awareness on adoption presents us with the hope that such blinkered and discriminative attitudes will be soon wiped away. Adoption is a wonderful opportunity to provide a healthy and stable life to those children without access to it. Every child has a right to a nurturing environment and it is inhuman to deny it, especially on the grounds of narrow-minded sentiments.