"Everything is correct, everything is legal, everything is documented. But no one tells you how heavy it feels to keep waiting without knowing what to expect next."
— Pre-Adoptive Parent
"Different people came and asked the same questions. Everyone was kind. But I didn’t know which answers mattered."
— Adoptive Child
01
Introduction
This project explores the child adoption ecosystem in India through a service design lens, focusing on the gap between procedural clarity and emotional preparedness in the adoption journey. While existing systems communicate legal and administrative processes to some extent, they fail to support the lived, emotional and social realities experienced by adoptive families.
Through qualitative research with pre-adoptive parents, post-adoptive parents and adoption NGOs, this study uncovers the absence of a trusted, structured space for peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. The outcome is a meso-level service blueprint for an NGO-anchored, CSR-funded community platform that enables safe, moderated exchange of lived adoption experiences, bridging institutional processes and human realities.
Rather than proposing a standalone digital product, this case study demonstrates how community can function as social infrastructure and how sustainability can be achieved through alignment with existing NGO networks and CSR funding models within the child welfare ecosystem.
02
Research & Design Process Flow
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Start
Discover a Research Topic
'Child Adoption in India'
- Brainstorming
- Ideation
- Persona creation
- Journey Mapping
Conduct Literature Review & Secondary Research
- Policy review (CARA guidelines)
- NGO adoption frameworks
- CSR adoption & child welfare reports
Are there emerging research questions?
Conduct Primary Research + continue secondary research parallelly & Collect Data
- Structured interviews with pre-adoptive parents
- In-depth conversations with post-adoptive parents
- Expert interviews with NGOs
- Informal conversations with children at adoption centres
Are there emerging insights?
Synthesise Data + Ideation
- Stakeholder Mapping
- Ecosystem Mapping
- Affinity Mapping
- Lotus Blossom
- Empathy Mapping
Did we find a gap?
Propose a solution
End
03
Legal Frameworks & Timeline
Guardians and Wards Act
- Early law for guardianship (not full adoption)
- Applied mostly to those persons who didn't permit full adoption
1890
1956
Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act
- First modern adoption law for Hindu, Jains and Buddhists
- Gave legal framework for adoption with parental rights and provisions
CARA Established
- CARA set up by MOCA as an autonomous body under the MOWCD
- India's public oversight body for adoption cases especially for abandoned, surrendered or parentless children
1990
1993/
2003
2003
Hague Convention
- India becomes party to the Hague Convention to regulate international adoption standards
- Established Central Authority for inter-country adoption under this convention
CARINGS Portal
- CARA's Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS) was introduced to digitize adoption procedures
- Enabled online registration, tracking, and data sharing between CARA and SAAs
- By 2015, widely used by both parents and SAA institutions
2000
2011
Juvenile Justice Act Provisions
- First major parent-centric act including socio-adoption provisions
- Replaced earlier J.J Act (pre 2000)
New J.J Act
- New Act replaced the 2003 Act
- CARA made a mandatory body under this Act
- Adoption procedures detailed in the new legislation made mandatory for all religions
- Prospective parents must register with CARA
- Home Study Report by a specialized agency made mandatory
- Previously, Adoption orders were given by family courts
2015
2021
J.J Act Amendments
- Came into force in September 2022
- District Magistrate (DM) instead of courts to issue adoption orders, aiming to reduce delays
Adoption Regulations
- Adoption procedures follow under the J.J Act
- Included new mandatory timelines
- Gave new role & status updates to CARINGS
2022
04
Raw Research Insights
Secondary Research — Key Insights
- Indian adoption laws strongly prioritize child protection and legal safeguards
- Digitization (CARA) has improved procedural efficiency, not emotional experience
- Adoption is widely acknowledged in research as a psychosocial process, not just legal
- Mental health and emotional preparedness are under-integrated in formal adoption systems
- Post-adoption adjustment and disclosure are recurring concerns in Indian adoptive families
- NGOs often act as emotional mediators, beyond their formal mandate
- Academic literature highlights the need for support systems beyond documentation
Primary Research — Raw Field Insights
- Parents perceive the process as mechanical, long and emotionally exhausting
- There is a lack of legal clarity
- Parents feel “informed but unsupported”
- Children experience prolonged waiting and repeated transitions
- Children’s emotional states are rarely surfaced or discussed explicitly
- Parents trust other parents’ lived experiences more than official guidance
- Informal peer support exists but is fragmented and invisible
- NGOs carry significant emotional labor without scalable tools
- No clear space exists for pre and post-adoption continuity
05
Research Gigamap
Stakeholder & Ecosystem Mapping
Adoption Scenarios — Pre & Post CARA (CARINGS)
06
Research Synthesis
User Journey Maps & Personas
Affinity Mapping
Empathy Mapping — Parents Centric Lens
Since Child Adoption is strictly a legal process with multiple stakeholders and rigid systems in place, it was difficult to intervene with the current adoption process. However, during our research synthesis phase we found structural gaps in the adoption process from Adoptive parents’ Point of view.
07
Ideation — Lotus Blossom
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Timeline view of the legal procedures
Case tracking system
Notification
Child-therapy session kits
School adoption awareness programs
Qualified Interviewers
Monitoring App
Dedicated counsellor
Quarterly review reports
Transparency
Online updates
Eliminate manual reporting
Ethics & Sensitivity
Gender / caste / disability bias
Child Welfare Committees training
Feedback & Marketing
Health professionals on panel
Periodic check-ins
Secure messaging
Parent status dashboard
Digital certificates for agencies
Bias detection and sensitization
Ethics & Sensitivity
Child protection & prevention modules
Post-adoption support scoring
Safe environment by NGOs
Yearly assessments
Centralized child profiles
Child adoption support centres
Transparency & Accountability
Online Policy
Ethics & Sensitivity
Community participation for child care
Feedback & Marketing
Support groups
Collaboration
Child Care interface
Grievance health care integration
Child Care
Feedback & Marketing
Child Adoption Application
Collaboration
Legal & Compliance
Operational Efficiency
Post-Adoption Care
Community FAQ
Simplified on the portal
Real time feedback from parents
Post adoption workshops
Data analytics from CARINGS
Resource sharing through community
Auto-generated legal documents
Faster processing of HSR
Parenting workshops
Pre-adoption journey guide
Outreach engagement
Feedback & Marketing
Collaboration
Legal Documentation
Awareness through data analytics
Legal Documentation
Digital workflow
Milestone tracking
Training centre for parents
Parent-to-parent mentorship
Feedback & Marketing
Collaboration
Legal compliance dashboard
Inter-agency data sharing
Legal Documentation
Real time status dashboard
Reunions & community events
Adoption Readiness Assessments
Myths & Impact Research
Feedback & Marketing
Collaboration
Automated case tracking
Legal Documentation
Legal Documentation
Auto-notifications for parents
Follow-up tracking
08
HMVs & Focussed Solutioning
Multiple researcher lenses enabled divergent ideation, while all solutions converged on a community-anchored, NGO-led adoption support ecosystem.
09
Designing
10
Service Blueprint — MESO LEVEL
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Phase 1
Awareness & Registration
Awareness & Registration
Phase 2
Home Study & Evaluation
Home Study & Evaluation
Phase 3
Matching & Referral
Matching & Referral
Phase 4
Legal Process
Legal Process
Phase 5
Post-Adoption
Post-Adoption
User Actions
Register on CARINGS portal, attend orientation sessions, submit documents
Host social worker visits, attend interviews, provide references
Review child profiles, accept/decline referral, visit child at institution
Appear before committee, sign legal documents, complete court formalities
Attend follow-up visits, submit progress reports, participate in support groups
Frontstage
SAA counsellor provides orientation, CARINGS portal registration interface
Social worker conducts home study, prepares HSR report
CARA matching algorithm, SAA facilitates child introduction
Child Welfare Committee review, District Magistrate order
Follow-up social worker visits, community support platform
— Line of Visibility —
Backstage
Document verification, background checks, waitlist management
HSR quality review, inter-agency coordination
Child profile preparation, medical assessments, seniority list processing
Legal document preparation, court scheduling, compliance checks
Progress tracking, reporting to CARA, case closure procedures
— Line of Internal Interaction —
Support
CARA database management, policy compliance monitoring
Training for social workers, standardized assessment frameworks
Inter-state coordination, child welfare data systems
Legal aid services, government liaison
NGO support networks, CSR funded community programs
Physical Evidence
CARINGS portal, registration forms, orientation materials
Home study report, interview recordings, reference letters
Child profiles, medical reports, matching notifications
Adoption order, legal certificates, court documents
Follow-up reports, community platform, support resources
11
Pattern Language
A Pattern Language for Service Design is a structured way of understanding and solving common service design challenges. It provides a collection of patterns, which are reusable solutions to recurring problems in service design. Each pattern describes a problem, its context, and a tested solution that can be adapted to different services.
It’s like a tool in a toolbox which gives designers structured guidelines to create effective and user-friendly services.
The Pattern Language for Touchpoint ecosystem utilized in this project is devised by Dr. Pramod Khambete — Consultant Adjunct Professor, IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.
12
Web Portal — 'Bandhan' Information Architecture
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Onboarding
Google Login
CARINGS Seniority Number
Apple
Verification Code
Create Profile
Homescreen
About Us
Contact Us
Forum
Consultation
Resources
Adoption Journey
Notification
Search
Community Forum
Search
Categories
All Discussion
Post a Reply
Resources
Articles
Blogs
Videos
Adoption Journey
1. Registration
2. HSR
3. Approval
4. Child Referral
5. Child Meeting
6. Legal Adoption
7. Post Adoption
