chennai the current crisis has stalled the adoption process in the state and has left more than 2500 prospective parents who have registered waiting and uncertain about the day they will get to meet and take their children home officials from the department of social defence said that those who have already been matched with children in adoption centres are unwilling to travel all the way to the state due to the virus spread and a few of them as official sources from the department said have also expressed second thoughts over adopting children from the state especially from chennai due to its high number of covid19 positive cases since the news of children turning positive for the virus in childcare institutions came out there have been more concerns about their safety these callers are parents who were already matched with children much before the lockdown was imposed the official said the official said that though they have been assuring them that the children are healthy and that they also strictly follow social distancing norms in childrens homes there are still issues that parents have they still have some concerns especially about adopting those with special needs but the others are waiting to be united with the childrenthere are currently 340 children residing in specialised adoption agencies in the state out of which 96 are legally free for adoption and 50 of them are children with special needs but since the last three months due to the lockdown no adoption committee has been convened in the state and procedures like conducting personal interviews and home visits before the completion of the process have been stalled though the officials have been carrying out most of the processes virtually it is important to meet parents in person we cannot take it forward until that happensdue to this pandemic the children will have to wait longer to live with families with the way things are going we feel this might take not less than eight more months said r vidyasagar former child protection specialist from unicef vidyasagar said that since lockdown the reception units in various districts including salem have stopped admitting abandoned and orphaned children he pointed out to a recent case in usilampatti madurai district where two newborn girls were abandoned on the streets since the home had temporarily closed the cradle baby scheme