To sensitise people to the issue of adopting children with special needs, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Cycle Pratishthan will conduct a bicycle rally in the city on November 8.

The numbers have been increasing over the years of people wanting to adopt children, but there are very few who want to take care of a child with special needs. While the Society of Friends of Sassoon Hospital (SOFOSH) has planned a series of events to highlight the problem during the Adoption week (November 14-21), Madhuri Abhyankar, Director at SOFOSH admits that there are 28 children who are mentally challenged and with special needs who have not been placed for adoption yet. On the other hand, over the past year there has been an increase in the number of people who have adopted children from their centre.

Seventy one children were adopted in 2004, 76 in 2005, 97 in 2006, 81 in 2007 and 69 in 2008. This year nine NRI couples have adopted children and five are foreigners.

It is also not infertility that is among the primary reason for adoption of children. Says B V Sivaramakrishna, ``My daughter who stays in USA has adopted a 13-month-old baby girl from SOFOSH. She is only 33 but decided to first adopt a child before planning her own,''says the Sivaramakrishna.

For Dr Sonali Pingale, adopting her `first' child never really posed a problem. ``There was a lot of paper work and several questions that were asked about the financial and emotional well being of the adopted child.

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