More Russians tend to adopt children since 2013

MOSCOW, May 13 (Itar-Tass) - The number of adoptions among Russians has increased for the first time over the last years, deputy head of children’s rights department of Russia’s Education Ministry, Vladimir Kabanov, told the Public Chamber’s meeting on Tuesday. The adoptions’ index was gradually decreasing during the 5-year period till 2013, when a positive tendency was first spotted. “The index went 3 percent up in contrast to the earlier decline. We hope this trend will persist”, the deputy said, adding that Russia’s state database of adoptable children includes 103,000 orphans at the moment. The number of registered orphans decreased 8 percent last year in contrast to 2012 and 16 percent to 2011; almost 63,000 children have been adopted by Russian families, which is 1,500 more adoptions than in 2012, Kabanov said. “In all, the number of adopted children surpassed the number of legally free orphans last year”, he stressed. The official added that 69,000 orphans and 38,000 abandoned children had been registered in 2013. “The latter are often spotted at a stage of the family crisis, when neither the government nor social institutions are able to resolve the situation, so children’s protection services have to take their parents to court and have them stripped of parental rights”, he said. Kabanov stressed that, despite the public misconception regarding alcoholism, one of the most common motives for rights deprivation was avoidance of parental duties. He added that 29,000 out of 40,000 people had been deprived of parental rights for that reason last year, while only 5,000 parents had been sued for alcohol and drug addiction. Unfortunately, there are also other reasons for the legal action of children’s services, such as child surrender or parental rights abuse. Learn more on itar-tass.com