7.1 There shall be a centralized agency namely Voluntary Coordinating Agency (VCA) in the State or even in a large city where there are several recognized placement and child welfare agencies. The principal functions of VCA shall be as follows:-

(a) It shall actively promote Indian adoption and formulate, develop and execute programs and activities for generating awareness in this regard;

(b) It shall ensure that the priority laid down by the Supreme Court on placement/adoption within the country or with Indian abroad is adhered to. All recognized social/child welfare agencies, Juvenile Welfare Boards and Government homes within the country, desirous of placing children in adoption/ placement shall furnish lists of children legally free for adoption to the concerned VCA and also to CARA;

(c) It shall maintain a register of all prospective adoptive parents;

(d) It shall maintain a register of all available children who are legally free for adoption;

(e) It shall coordinate the work of all its member agencies and other child welf2ire institutions in the field of Indian adoption. Where Indian adoption is difficult within its area of operation it shall coordinate with other VCAs in the State and in the country;

(f) Where Indian placement is not materialized, it shall issue a no objection certificate within a period of two months from the date of receipt of application for 'No objection' in the VCAs to the recognized placement agency so as to enable the child to be placed in inter-country adoption;

(g) In the case of a child requiring immediate medical or surgical assistance, the VCA may waive the stipulated waiting period on production of medical certificate as provided in paragraph 4.24 above and issue a no-objection certificate at the earliest;

(h) It shall call a meeting of member agencies at least once every quarter;

(i) In cases where these guidelines are not being followed by any recognized placement agency, the concerned VCA will bring it to the notice of CARA with substantive evidence for taking appropriate action.

7.2 The VCA shall be registered under the Societies Registration Act and will comply with all the rules laid down under the Act and also these guidelines.

7.3 Every VCA shall have, on its staff, at least two professionally trained social workers.

7.4 Every VCA shall have to seek recognition from CARA by means of an application which shall be routed through the State Government and the State Government shall offer its comments on such application within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of such application and if no such comments are forthcoming within the period of 30 days, it shall be presumed that the State Government has no objection.

7.5 All the recognized placement agencies (whether doing only in-country and inter-country adoption) would be entitled to become members of VCA and those child welfare agencies which are not placing children in adoption but are merely n-inning homes for children etc. would also be eligible to be members of VCA. The final decision in case of the later would rest with the executive committee of the VCA. If any agency is de-recognized by CARA on account of malpractice of any other valid reason or any child welfare agency de-licensed by the State Government, then it shall cease to be a member of VCA and it shall not be eligible for membership of VCA unless it is once again recognized or licensed.

7.6 The recognized placement agencies would have the right to vote for electing the executive committee of the VCA. The child welfare agencies would not enjoy any voting right. The VCA should be an independent registered body with a democratic structure. The Chairman should not be connected with either in-country or intercountry placements.

7.7 There shall be an executive committee for managing the day-to-day affairs of VCA. The executive committee shall consist of not less than 3 members and not more than one-third the number of members of the VCA.

7.8 The executive committee of VCA shall comprise:

(a) The Chairman of VCA.

(b) A representative of the State Government of the level of the Deputy Director (Welfare)/Social Welfare or above.

(c) One senior representative of each scrutinizing agency working in the jurisdiction of the concerned VCA.

(d) One representative from the agencies exclusively does Indian adoption.

(e) There representatives of the recognized placement agencies out of these at least two shall be from those placement agencies which have placed at least 50 per cent children within the country during last three years to be elected by the recognized placement agencies which are members of VCA. The terms of office of the members of the executive committee of items (c) and (d) shall be two years and they shall not be eligible for re-appointment for the next succeeding period of 2 years.

The executive committee of VCA may appoint staff to carry out the day-to-day functions of the VCA. Such paid staff would be accountable to the executive committee.

7.9 The no-objection certificate issued by the VCA would be signed and issued by two persons-the Chairperson and MemberSecretary, both of whom will not be connected with adoption activities whether in country or inter-country. No recognized placement agency shall process the application for inter-country adoption before obtaining the no-objection certificate save in the case of exceptional and/or exempted categories referred to above at these guidelines.