What India can do to strengthen community-based foster care for children in need of nurturing

Parental care plays a significant role in the safety, security, development and well-being of the children. However, millions of children are unfortunately deprived of this opportunity due to obvious reasons. An estimate says that over 140 million children globally are experiencing the loss of one or both parents. In South Asia, India has the largest number of orphaned and vulnerable children. 

Around 39 per cent of the country’s population — 472 million — are children below the age of 18 years, according to Census 2011. India has 29 million orphaned children, as estimated by UNICEF in the The World’s Children Report, 2016.

On the other hand, the government was able to reach out to only 370,227 children in need of care and protection and 7,422 in conflict with law across 9,589 child care institutions (CCI) / homes, as established by a 2016 study by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).

In 2022-23, 57,940 children received support through CCIs and 62,675 through non-institutional care, MWCD said December 20, 2023 in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. 

The National Family Health Survey-5 reported that three per cent of children in India were not living with a biological parent and five per cent were orphans with one or both parents who have died. The percentage of children who are orphans rose rapidly with age, according to the report, from less than 1 per cent among children under age 2 years to 9 per cent among children aged 15-17 years. The northeast region had the highest percentage of orphaned children (6 per cent or more in every state except Tripura). 

The different sets of data represent the problem from multiple angles but each underlines the acute vulnerability of the children. They also reflect the gap between the need and response. 

As an alternative community-based care, the concept of foster care for children has been in place for the last several years. The Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, earlier the Integrated Child Protection Schemes and now Mission Vatsalya, is emphasising it. However, due to several bottlenecks it hasn’t taken off at the expected pace. In India, foster homes hold up to only 500,000 children at a time. The average duration of stay for each child is around two years. 

Under the MWCD guidelines released in 2016, children in the age group of 6-18 years, whose parents are unable to take care of them due to reasons such as mental illness, poverty or imprisonment, and those staying in childcare institutions, can be placed in foster care.

Foster care is an arrangement whereby a child is placed for the purpose of alternative care in the domestic environment of a family, usually on a short-term or extended period, with unrelated family members for the purpose of care and protection. 

The situation under which foster care can be given rests on the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), based on their assessment of the individual case presented before them.  

The lack of proper awareness involving village-level child protection committees, non-availability of frontline workers dedicated to child protection, less emphasis on identifying eligible foster parents and making them interested to apply for foster care, apathetic attitude and lack of patronisation by the appropriate authorities are the major stumbling blocks. 

CWC and district child protection units are the major stakeholders to facilitate the foster care process. However, as envisaged in the 2016 MCWD guidelines, the non-governmental organisations empanelled by the district magistrate may support the units in short listing of eligible children, preparation of Individual care plan, child study report and home study report, counselling for the child, foster caregivers / parents and biological families, as required, training of foster caregivers of the fit facility, preparation of Information, education and communication material and spreading awareness on the foster care programme and advocacy periodic / regular inspections of placement of children in family and group foster care. 

Every child has unique potential and they deserve love, affection and care of a family. Foster care is one such mechanism which offers a family-based support to those children who are not with their biological parents. Community centric family-based care significantly improves the situation of the children in all aspects. Schemes like Mission Vatsalya have enough opportunities and scope to expand support, protection and care to the children in terrible need through foster care mechanisms. 

A collective effort of civil societies and government will bridge the shortcomings in implementation of the scheme. 

Ghasiram Panda is the National Project Lead — Child Rights of ActionAid Association. Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.