Support and sustain Children in difficult circumstances.

Develop context-based solutions for holistic development of children from varied backgrounds.

Provide scope for green field projects for encouraging innovative solutions.

Cement convergent action by gap funding, if required

Support for statutory services including

Child Welfare Committees,

Juvenile Justice Boards.

District Child protection units,

State Child Protection Society (SCPS) & State Adoption Resource Agencies.

Strengthen Structures for Institutional and Non-Institutional care, including family and community-based care, emergency outreach, counselling and support services at the national, regional, state and district levels, for providing support to children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law.

c.

Service Delivery Structures: The Scheme envisages a Central Project Monitoring Unit for coordination and monitoring with the State governments, while implementing the Scheme, which will function under overall supervision of the Joint Secretary, Child Welfare in the Ministry. The State Child Protection Society shall be responsible for situational analysis, planning, convergence and implementation of the scheme in the state, while the State Adoption Resource Agency shall coordinate with Central Adoption Resource Authority and District Magistrates, for promoting in-country and inter-country Adoptions.

The District Child Protection Unit assists the District Magistrate in ensuring service delivery and taking all necessary measures in the district, for care and protection of children. The Child Welfare Committees are mandated to be established (at least one per district) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act, 2015) (as amended in 2021), to oversee the best interest of children in need of care and protection and take action for their care, protection, treatment, development & rehabilitation, inter alia.

Similarly, the Juvenile Justice Board (at least one per district) is mandated under the JJ Act, 2015 to hear the cases pertaining to children in conflict with law and take decisions for their treatment and rehabilitation. The scheme proposes to provide funding support for these service delivery structures at all levels, which will enable a framework of child protection in the Country.

Institutional Care: The scheme supports Childcare Institutions (Children Homes, Observation Homes, Special Homes, Place of safety, Specialised Adoption agencies and Open shelters) for board, lodging and comprehensive rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection and Children in conflict with law.

Separate homes based on age, gender or special needs of children could be established/ supported by the State/District and shall have similar facilities in terms of infrastructure and services. The CCIs could be either for fifty (50) children or twenty-five (25) children, depending upon the need of children in a particular area.

Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs) shall provide care and protection of ten (10) children in the age of zero to six (0-6) years. These SAAs can also be established near or within jail premises, to provide care and protection to young children of jailed mothers.

The Open shelters will provide care and protection to children of working parents requiring short time day or night care support.

Under Mission Vatsalya Scheme, monthly maintenance grant of 2500 INR (30 USD approx.) per child for children in Specialised Adoption Agencies and Open Shelters and 3000 INR (37 USD approx.) per child in other Child care institutions (Children Homes, Observation Homes, Special Homes, Place of safety) respectively are provided.

Non-Institutional Care: The Scheme provides for Non-Institutional Care to the Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) by way of sponsorship, Foster care and Aftercare (up to the age of 21 years). 4000 INR (50 USD approx.) is provided for Non-Institutional Care (Sponsorship/ foster care/ Aftercare). The per child maintenance cost has been rationalised to meet the basic expenses as per current prices. Allocation and rate of per child per month maintenance grant for non institutional care is proposed to be increased for encouraging rehabilitation of children in their organic eco-system, extended families and communities.

Child Helpline: An emergency outreach helpline for children as mandated under the JJ Act, 2015 is proposed to be supported under the scheme with improved coordination with State and District functionaries and integration with 112 Helpline of MHA.

g.

Other Initiatives: A series of new initiatives are contemplated for addressing the concerns related to the Children in India namely :

Conducting a national Child Survey in collaboration with Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (including children with all types of disabilities, as acknowledged by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment);

Investing in development, institutionalization and assessment of Child Index;

Developing and hosting a uniform portal to maintain database of children;

Grading of Child Care Institutions;

Child Protection Awards;

Gap funding amounting to 20% of project cost, in case of convergent activities;

Advocacy & IEC activities;

Research and documentation etc.