Delhi government announces policy to support kids in distress

The state department of Women and Children Development , along with the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights and other experts, formulated the guidelines to provide supplementary support to the families.

In a first, the Delhi government on Friday issued the standard operating procedure (SOP) for family-based sponsorship of children who have either lost their parents or their guardians are not in a position to support them financially. Delhi has now formally opened the system of child foster care or sponsorship, which was pending for nearly six years despite it being mandated under the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The sponsorship scheme has been notified in the backdrop of at least 1,436 children losing either both parents or at least one parent to Covid-19 in Delhi. (File Photo / PTI)

The new “guidelines for family-based sponsorship in Delhi” will also allow corporates (under Corporate Social Responsibility) and individuals to sponsor for the education, health, and basic sustenance of children through a proper government channel. Till now, such activities were limited to a few NGOs, which also meant that the Delhi government was neither able to maintain a proper database of children receiving such help nor were they able to track the all-round development of the children.

The state department of Women and Children Development (WCD), along with the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) and other experts, has formulated the guidelines to provide supplementary support, financial or otherwise, to the families to meet the medical, educational and developmental needs of the children who are either orphaned and living with their extended family, or their parents are incapable of providing for them. Children up to the age of 18 years will be eligible to receive family-based sponsorship.

The sponsorship programme has been notified in the backdrop of several children losing either both parents or at least one parent to Covid-19. As per the recent data collected by the DCPCR, at least 1,436 children lost either one or both their parents to Covid-19 in Delhi. Of them, 59 children lost both parents, 467 lost their mother while 910 lost their father.

Dr. Rashmi Singh, director of the WCD department, said, “We have issued the guidelines for sponsorship and foster care of children in need. Finally, foster care will be possible in Delhi, but it will be strictly on a case to case basis. It will be imperative for the child welfare committee to do the due diligence and decide foster care for such children based on the social investigation report of each case. A family will be considered eligible for foster care only if we find it meets all the criteria after inspection and thorough investigation.”

The SOP, seen by HT, states families keeping foster children will get a monthly financial supplementary assistance of ₹2,000 per child. Each family will not be allowed foster care of maximum two children. This incentive will initially be for a period of six months, extendable to the period ordinarily not exceeding three years or till the child attains the age of 18 years whichever is earlier, the document said, adding that there will be a physical verification and review of the progress of the child by the District Child Protection Unit after every six months to continue the sponsorship.

“While this monthly allowance will go directly through the Sponsorship & Foster Care Fund of the Delhi government, the SOP has also made a provision where individuals or organisations can directly provide sponsorship to the children through the government’s child welfare committee. The WCD department will create a list of empanelled sponsors, which will be updated from time to time. So, the moment the police or the DCPCR or district child protection unit, NGOs or even schools identify such children, they will get care and support through the list of empanelled sponsors after completing all the investigation,” said Dr. Singh.

The foster care scheme, a non-institutional family care programme for children till 18 years, was pending with Delhi’s WCD department for years. But an exception was made in this case once in October 2013 when the CWC allowed a couple to take in four siblings who were rescued from a factory in Punjab’s Jalandhar.

According to the SOPs, a child in need of sponsorship support may be referred by the district childline workers, police, DCPCR, district-level legal services authorities, a district task force of the WCD department, and special juvenile police, among others to the district child welfare committees or Juvenile Justice Board. The committee or the board will conduct extensive background checks before passing the order for putting the child under foster care.

The children covered under the sponsorship will be assisted for his/ her immunization, health check-up, growth monitoring, age-appropriate education, higher education, skill development and pre-employment training.

The department also issued rules for the guardians or parents who opt for the scheme. “They shall ensure that the child aged between five and 16 years has at least 75% attendance in schools. Those less than five years and not attending school shall be mandatorily enrolled in an anganwadi or a playschool. The child in the 16-18 age group shall either attend the school for at least 75% of the days or a vocation course, as the case may be,” the SoPs added.

DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu, who co-chaired the committee that formulated the SoPs, said the sponsorship programme also allows private individuals and organisations to donate for the purpose as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. “There are so many people who want to donate to help children in need and with this, the government has created a mechanism through which they can do that. We will soon launch a bank account link on our website for this,” he said.

Experts say such a scheme is required across the country. Sudarshan Suchi, CEO of Save the Children said not only Delhi, but it is essential for all states to prepare a detailed comprehensive plan and guidelines on promoting and institutionalizing foster care in India.

These guidelines need to go hand in hand with the capacity building and training of all the staff involved in child care to ensure adequate delivery. In absence of these detailed guidelines, it is critical for the child welfare committees to pay home visits and prepare a social investigation report for children who are in urgent need of care and protection.

“Under the provision of the Juvenile Justice Act, we need to identify the most appropriate care-giving support that is created and delivered at an individual level, because the needs of children are of utmost importance and vary on a case to case basis,” said Suchi.