Forgotten Children

By Satyajeet MazumdarMUMBAI, India, May 15 2020 (IPS) Children residing in Child Care Institutions (CCIs, commonly known as orphanages) in India have often found themselves to be the forgotten lot, when it comes to support and development initiatives by the government. This has also been the case during the current lockdown. This is partly because, according to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), children in need of care and protection, or CNCP, are supposed to be placed in CCIs temporarily, until suitable means of rehabilitation, such as adoption, placement in foster care, or restoration with family, can be found for them by the authorities. The reality in most cases, however, is quite different. There are about 370,000 children in more than 9,500 CCIs in India. The number of adoptions and placements in foster care have been dismal—only 4,027 children (0.01 percent) were adopted through the Central Adoption Resource Authority in 2018-19, and official foster care figures are not available. About 50 percent of the children in CCIs come from families that are unable to take care of them due to their financial situation. The ongoing pandemic is expected to push many families deeper into poverty, which would lead to a rise in this number Moreover, the circumstances from which most children are rescued to be placed in CCIs make it difficult for them to be restored with their families. Hence, most children continue to reside in these instit...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Education Headlines Health Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news