Over 5,000 on waiting lists

Over 5,000 local applicants are on the waiting lists to adopt children legally and have sought permission from the Department of Probation and Child Care.

These requests have been received at provincial level and the applicants have been waiting for over five years.

Most of the requests have been made to the Department from the Western Province and the number exceeds 1,000, Senior Probation Officer of the Kurunegala district, Mrs. K.M. Kamala Herath told the Sunday Observer.

The Department has found it difficult to meet all these demands as it has only a limited number of inmates in its orphanages.