Mandira Bedi Advocates for Adoption Beyond Infancy: 'Motherhood Defined by Love'

Actor and cricket show host Mandira Bedi highlights the importance of adopting older children, not just infants. She advocates for a simplified adoption process to help more parentless children find homes. Bedi, with personal experience in adoption, emphasizes that motherhood is defined by love and commitment, not biology.

Actor and cricket show host Mandira Bedi has expressed her support for adopting older, parentless children, not just infants, and she calls for a simplified adoption process. Bedi, who is both a biological and adoptive mother, shared that adoption was a lifelong dream, not merely a last resort.

Speaking at a panel discussion titled 'Normalising and Encouraging Adoption in India,' Bedi highlighted the plight of older orphans in the adoption system. She pointed out that while many focus on adopting infants, older children often go unnoticed and are left behind. Bedi shared her own experience with her adopted daughter Tara, who was four years old when she came home.

Bedi recounted a heartbreaking story from an adoption agency, where a young girl had been chosen for adoption multiple times but was returned each time due to unforeseen circumstances. The actor stressed that older children also deserve homes filled with love and values, similar to her own family experience with her son and adopted daughter.

(With inputs from agencies.)