Indian women giving up their children for adoption affected by lack of information

15 January 2008

Single, pregnant women in Southern India who decide to give up their children for adoption, often make this decision because adoption is presented to them as the best and even the only option. Moreover, they often make this decision under the false assumption that they only arrange for childcare rather than completely giving up their children. Pien Bos received a PhD with distinction from Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands on 10 January 2008 for her research into the decision making process of these single mothers. She argues in favour of more information because there are alternatives.

Pien Bos, education specialist and anthropologist, worked in the field of adoption before she became a researcher in 2001. As part of her research she conducted two years of fieldwork talking to mothers, their families and welfare and social work organizations in India. Her supervisor and co-supervisor of this PhD are Prof. dr. J. Schrijvers and dr. F. Reysoo. This study has partly been funded by NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development and the Academic Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice, WODC.

Source: Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands