New Delhi: In view of the difficulties faced by adult adoptees in seeking information about their origin through the “Root Search” process prescribed under the Adoption Rules 2022, the Central Adoption Resource Authority has asked States and Union Territories to ensure that all physical and digital records are safely preserved and transferred to the designated authority or institution, and make appropriate arrangements for long-term preservation of records to facilitate root search by future adopters. Go.“The safeguarding, maintenance, or lawful transfer of such records should be strictly ensured to prevent denial or obstruction of root search or access to records by older adoptees or other legitimate stakeholders,” CARA said in the Office Memorandum on Policy Clarification regarding Safeguarding, Maintenance, and Transfer of Records of Children and Adopted Children for future reference and root search purposes.CARA says “It has been observed that problems are arising in cases where older adoptees approach the relevant authorities for origin tracing, as envisaged under Regulation 47(2) of the Adoption Regulations, 2022 and the requisite records are not available with the concerned institution.”The authority says it has been observed that in some cases, records are unavailable because the concerned Specialized Adoption Agency (SAA) or Child Care Institution (CCI) has been closed, deregistered, merged, or its functions have been transferred to another institution, leading to records being lost or misplaced.In this background and to ensure uniformity in implementation, Member Secretary and CEO, CARA Bhavana Saxena reiterated in the memorandum that “the obligation to maintain, preserve and secure records of children and adoptees will continue irrespective of the operational status of the SAA or CCI”.States and Union Territories have been asked to ensure that “all physical and digital records are securely preserved and transferred to the designated authority or institution, and appropriate arrangements are made for long-term preservation of records to facilitate root tracing by older adopters in future”.