Rights of adoption for LGBTQ community: a comparative analysis

ABSTRACT

Indian law does not allow same-sex marriage, so homosexual couples cannot adopt a child. The law makes it illegal for LGBTQ+ couples to adopt a child and raise it together, showing that they are not equally treated with dignity and respect in the eyes of the law. As a result, adoption is prohibited for LGBTQ+ couples because the child should not be raised in a "inadequate environment". However, it is surprising that the legislation permits a child to be grown as an orphan without both parents and family instead of grown by LGBTQ+ couples. Despite the fact that LGBTQ+ couples are prohibited to adopt a child, the ratio of orphans is increasing day by day in India. In India, as per the study UNICEF, we came to know that there are more than 29.6 million abandoned and orphaned children, a certain figure is predicted to reach 24 million i.e., almost 4% of the youth population, and unfortunately there are very low adoption rate in our country. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, there are more than thousands of children have been abandoned, and still, the real number of abandoned children is not known. Also, according to the government of India, the report was submitted to the Supreme Court in 2012, the number of LGBTQ people in India is about 2.5 million at that time, even the strength is huge but there is no official data about the LGBTQ population. Refusal the right of adoption to people of LGBTQ+ community affects their dignity because prejudice is focused on their ability gender identity rather than their ability or worth as parents.