Help is at hand for such prospective parents. A recently developed software module will match prospective parents and children from various institutions enabling speedy processing of adoption. Prepared by the Bal Asha Trust and Aksharmaya, the PAC (Parent and Child) MIS Module (Computerised Management Information System) has been sponsored by Rayon de Soleil, France.

At present, there is no comprehensive information on children in institutions who are up for adoption. The PAC will contain information on children from 285 institutions in Maharashtra. A child's file will speak about the colour of his/her skin, eyes and hair, age, blood group, birthweight, legal status (whether he/she has been relinquished by the biological parents or committed by the court) and registration number.

In case the child has any disorder or has had any disease in the past and if the social history of the child or his biological parents is known, these are mentioned. For older, school-going children, the languages they speak, food preferences and hobbies are also included. Similarly, a comprehensive profile of the parents is prepared. This again includes information on hair, skin and eye colour, marital status, religion, monthly income, languages spoken, number of children, choice of age group of children they want to adopt and their medical status.

Within just three minutes, the computer strikes up a prospective match between a child and a couple. "Normally, this process would take over a month. It does not matter if prospective parents meet four to five of the children short-listed by the computer and happen to reject all of them. At least the delay in locatingchildren has been reduced," says Madhavi Hegde Karandikar, (MSW) trustee honourary secretary and adoption practitioner at Bal Asha.

Due to the unavailablity of information on children from other adoption agencies, the present module will remain a model unless it is taken up by the state government. "We have approached Uttam Khobragade, director, social welfare and we will also be meeting Suresh Kumar, Secretary General, (Administration) and in charge of computerisation in Maharashtra and also Governer P C Alexander. The module can store profiles of 5000 persons. ``So, it is up to the state government to demand data from child care agencies all over Maharashtra," says Karandikar.

Besides speeding up the process of locating children and parents, the module offers a standardised format for collection of information. Most big institutions have one general register book for all children. They are not categorised into single-parent children, orphans-but-not-destitute and abandoned-and-destitute children. "Dueto this, there have been instances where children not free for adoption have been placed for adoption leading to embarrassing situations for the institution, government and the biological and adoptive patients," says Karandikar.