Only 2,518 of millions of Indian girls abandoned in 2009 were adopted

Indian nuns and orphans offer prayers in front of a portrait of the late Mother Teresa during the commemoration of her 12th death anniversary at Nirmala Sishu Bhavan in Ahmedabad on September 5, 2009. (SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Some 11 million Indian children — 90 percent of them baby girls — were abandoned by their parents in 2009, while only 2,518 found adoptive homes, the Supreme Court found in deliberations over a public interest suit seeking an overhaul the state-run adoption system.

According to the Times of India, senior advocates representing a private adoption agency cited a 2007 report from the London Times that alleged the state system is marred by "total apathy and corruption." 

The petitioner said the adoption process has been "reduced to a farce, and empowered opaque, state-run children's homes and criminal private individuals to play with the lives of adoptable children and adopting parents." The petition also alleged that the practice of selling babies was widespread.

Also reflecting the low status of women in Indian society — where the continuing practice of dowry makes daughters a financial liability and sons a financial windfall — the latest census data showed that the the child sex ratio in India has declined to 914 females per 1000 males — the lowest since India won its independence from Britain in 1947.