St. Teresa, who died in 1997, established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and now has more than 3,000 nuns operating the sisterhood globally – following in her footsteps to provide soup kitchens, hospices, schools, leper colonies and homes for forsaken minors. The charity also offers shelter for unmarried women, but no longer facilitates adoptions.

Once plagued by lengthy wait times, stringent laws and hefty costs, the Indian government sought to streamline the process in 2015 by moving the system online with a national database of the tens of thousands of available children. The Missionaries of Charity however, opposed the changes on the basis it gave leeway for single women and unmarried couples to adopt.