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This article looks at the role of the State of India in ensuring the wellbeing of those it has the responsibility to protect. These include people who have suffered violence, indignity, hunger and life-threatening circumstances. The five-year planning of state and district plans have utilised more resources than it has produced outcomes and output. In this article the authors have compiled lessons learned from strategies that can enable duty holders to emerge as more responsible actors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a series of written interviews conducted with care-experienced persons from Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka who have had experience with alternative care.
These interviews were published in the September 2023 issue of the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond journal.
The case studies outlined in this publication draw upon earlier work, which suggested that young people leaving care may broadly fall into one of three groups: those successfully ‘moving on’ from care; those who are ‘survivors’; and those who are ‘strugglers’. These groups are clearly detailed in the text, including the ‘protective’ and ‘risk’ factors associated with each group – or put in terms of relevance to policy and practice, the factors which may promote (‘protective’) or pose barriers (‘risks’) to the resilience of young people from care to adulthood.
The three groups were…
Abstract
Adoption, kinship care, and foster care are the oldest known forms of alternative care in India. Whilst these are recognized as the most appropriate forms of care today, institutional care has become the most dominant form of care in India in the last 100 years, although it is meant to be ‘a measure of last resort’. As in most countries, childcare institutions in India cater for children up to 18 years old. The sudden withdrawal of support at 18 leaves these young people facing heightened challenges and poorer outcomes on the journey to independence, not only because of…
Sri Lanka's National Policy on the Alternative Care of Children outlines a comprehensive range of alternative care options and encourages the reforming of all formal structures that provide at-home and out-of-home services for children deprived of care and protection or at risk of being so. This policy also extends to children under care of the Juvenile Justice System. It provides policy solutions to programming for children at risk of family separation and facing deprivations such as child abuse, neglect, child labor, poverty, addiction, imprisonment, human trafficking, mental and physical…
Abstract: This paper is a condensed version of a study entitled “Beyond 18: Leaving Child Care Institutions - Supporting Youth Leaving Care: A Study of Aftercare Practices in Five States of India”, conducted and published in 2019 by Udayan Care, a charitable organisation, with support from UNICEF India and Tata Trusts. This research involved the participation…
Abstract
Background. HIV/AIDS has a greater impact on children. Besides being orphaned by the untimely demise of one or both parents due to the disease, these children are more prone for discrimination by the society. Methods. In this cross-sectional study 86 children orphaned by AIDS residing in care giving institutions for HIV positive children in Mangalore were assessed for their clinico-epidemiological profile and nutritional status. Institutional Ethics Committee clearance was obtained before the commencement of the study. The collected data were analyzed using…
Abstract
ChildFund International (ChildFund) is a child‐focused International Non‐Governmental Organization (INGO) which, since 1938, has worked with local implementing partners (LIPs), government, and other partner organizations to help create the safe environments children need to thrive. The purpose of this commentary is to reflect on the utility and possible application of the suggestions and study designs in this special issue to real‐life intervention studies in dynamic context settings. The commentary provides three regional case examples with evaluation study lessons learned from…
Article 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises the vulnerability of children growing up outside a family environment, and sets the ground for the paradigm of ‘institutions as a last resort’. However, ‘care homes’ or ‘hostels’ are still common forms of alternative care solutions for children from impoverished families in India. This article asks to what extent the clear impetus towards de-institutionalisation in human rights discourses, especially among international NGOs, has potential to change such practices. The study contributes to a body of scholarship…
Abstract
Purpose
To assess the impact of care at foster homes on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children living with HIV (CLHIV), attending a referral ART Centre, and to compare their HRQOL with children living in their own homes.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 144 CLHIV between 5 and 18 years of age, attending a referral ART Centre in South India to assess their HRQOL using the standard PedsQL™ 4.0 questionnaire. Data were then analysed to compare the HRQOL of children living in foster homes to those children living in their own homes. The…