Contrary to popular belief, orphaned and abandoned children in institutional orphanages fare as well or better than those who live in the community, found a Duke University study of more than 3,000 children in five African and Asian countries, including India.
Eighty-three institutions participated in the study, of which 14 were in Hyderabad and 14 in Dimapur and Kohima districts of Nagaland.
The findings run contrary to global policies held by children’s rights organisations such as UNICEF and UNAIDS, which recommend institutions for orphaned and abandoned children only as a last resort, and urge that such children be moved as quickly as possible to a residential family setting.
A team led by Kathryn Whetten of the the Duke Global Health Institute in North Carolina, U.S., compared the physical health, cognitive functioning, emotion, behaviour and growth of 3,000 orphaned or abandoned children ages 6-12, half of them living in institutions and the other half dwelling in the community.
They found that children in institutions in five countries reported better health scores, lower prevalence of recent sickness and fewer emotional difficulties than community-dwelling children.