Adoption in India : Policies and Experiences/Vinita Bhargava. New Delhi, Sage, 2005, 282 p., tables, $33. ISBN 81-7829-516-4.

    Contents: Foreword. Prologue. I. Adoption policies and macro concerns: 1. Introduction. 2. Theoretical paradigms and research findings. 3. Adoption and the Indian socio-political context. 4. Socio-cultural dimensions of adoption in India. II. Micro issues: experiences of parents and children: 5. Researching adoption: the cultural reality. 6. Alternative parenting. 7. Construction of the self in an adopted child. 8. Family interactions and self-evaluations. Epilogue. Appendices. Glossary. References.

    "This book is a pioneering study on child adoption in India. Challenging some of the prevailing theories on adoptive parenting through empirical data, it examines the issues that impinge on the development of adopted children in India. Importantly, this is the first book to give space to the voices of children.

    The book is divided into two sections. The first deals with the macro-level issues of child adoption and discusses:

• Historical and global perspectives concerning adoption;
• Theoretical paradigms, problems of research design and evaluation of research outcomes in adoption studies; and
• The Indian socio-political and socio-cultural contexts and contemporary adoption practices.

    The second section provides a micro-level analysis of individual families and highlights:

• The issues that come up while researching adoption in the Indian context; and
• Experiences of parents and children, which have been collated to facilitate an understanding of the phenomenon of adoption at various stages of the child's development.

    A distinguishing feature of this book is that it effectively combines both macro and micro issues with qualitative and quantitative methodologies to give a comprehensive construal of adoption. The life-cycle approach (which helps to map the continuities and transformations in the behaviour of adopted children), ethnographic studies of adoptive families and the author's personal story as an adoptive parent have been combined to provide the reader with an empathetic understanding of the adoptive parent and child. As a result, this book will be widely welcomed by parents of adopted children, policy-makers, counsellors, adoption agencies, and those working on the rights of children. It will be of equal interest to students and scholars of child development, psychology and social work."

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