10. Where Are India's Children?

13. Shefali Naidu

Shefali Naidu is an author/screenwriter by profession. She has published two books, a love anthology - Love Unplugged. And a Crime thriller - Roses are Red Crimes are Blue. She is also have been a choreographer for over a decade, teaching western form of dancing like Jazz, Jive, hip-hop, Salsa and Bollywood, until the writing bug bit her!! Shefali has been married to Karthik for 13 years now. They have a biological daughter Shaina who is 10 and a heart baby Kiara who is 3.5 years old.

12. Mom Story by Sahana

Few years back a moment changed the purpose of Sahana's life forever. She got a call from a distant friend and they expressed the desire to adopt a child. Their ignorance around the subject made them look more like buyers than prospective parents. This made her think – adoption as a concept is not normal in our society. She wanted to do something to bring awareness and took the initiative to start educating and creating awareness about adoption in India through her YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb7FcaJ9w5bPs9rgHVy7txQ [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb7FcaJ9w5bPs9rgHVy7txQ]. She is an adoptive mother, entrepreneur and a passionate author. Adoption is still a taboo in our society and a lot of myths are associated with it. People are ignorant about the process, emotional connection and the reality of it. Till now she has made more than 100 adoption related videos in English and Hindi. She has also conducted many interviews with adoptive parents, counselors, social workers and organised closed group sessions for a more dedicated exposure for prospective parents. Her aim is not just to educate people about the technical process but also voice the nitti-gritties around adoption. In the last 3 years she has touched more than 150 lives and helped them directly & indirectly in their adoption journey. She has also penned down a book “Beyond Womb” available on Amazon and Flipkart that addresses adoption in a story format connecting dots of the adoptive parents with the adoptees in reality. She actively communicates with her audience through comments, mails, messages and also counsel through calls at times. Many adoptive parents and prospective parents have appreciated the simple videos which help them to relate and clear their doubts. She has interviewed and presented stories of other adoptive parents, eminent people associated with adoption for the public to watch and learn about their journey. Couples, Singles, special needs, older children and many more such topics are covered in her videos. This is a journey which is still going on for her through the discussion with prospective parents, adoptive parents and adoptees too. Most of the children coming in the adoption pool are malnourished and hence to add value to their health she has also posted videos of baby food, parenting and other challenges that goes around parenting along with her grandmother. Her vision is very simple “Adoption is as beautiful as a biological family, we must accept and cherish it without any tags associated with it. This will be possible only when we talk about it openly and normalise it.”

11. Domestic Adoption Within India

Priya was born and bought up in Mumbai, India. She is a nutritionist by profession, She is currently parenting an 8 year old son and 17 month old daughter along with her partner.

10. Where Are India's Children?

"Smriti Gupta is an adoptive mother of two daughters and is the co-founder of Where Are India's Children (waic.in [http://waic.in]) - an organisation working to bring abandoned and orphaned children in India into the legal adoption pool. Smriti has a background in technology, marketing, and partnerships. She has previously worked with Wikimedia Foundation, PayPal (eBay), and Synopsys. She is an alum of the Indian School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, and The Cooper Union."

9. Adoption Stories

Leena Mhatre is an MBA in human resource having work experience in companies like Nokia, HDFC Life and DCB Bank. Currently she is working as a freelance professional fine artist. She is also passionate about singing. Pankaj Mhatre is an electronics engineer and is currently working with Chubbs Systems at Manager position. He is a pet lover and does a lot of social activities related to street dog health and care. They are adoptive parents to their beautiful daughter and she is one of the reasons that they are here to inspire people about adoption Procedures and trying to get rid of the stigma adoption still existent in their country, India.