Overcrowding of Childcare Institutions

Children in distress situations merit care and protection under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The Act mandate a safety net of service delivery structures along with institutional and non-institutional care for these children.
The Ministry is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely Child Protection Services (CPS) in partnership with the State Governments/UT Administrations for delivering institutional and non-institutional care as stipulated under the JJ Act.
As per the scheme,
1. A maintenance grant of Rs.2000/- per child per month is available for non-institutional care of children in need of care and protection.
2. Provision Maintenance Grant of Rs.2160/- per child per month for Children living in Child care Institutions.

PM CARES for children scheme

PM CARES for children scheme to support children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardians or adoptive parents due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scheme provides support for education and health and will create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age.
This corpus will be used to give a monthly financial support/ stipend form 18 years of age, for the next 5 years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher education and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use.
The scheme is accessible through an online portal i.e. pmcaresforchildren.in. The portal has been introduced to all the States and UTs on 15.07.21.
Any Citizen can feed the data regarding a child who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian or adoptive parents due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Guidelines by Ministry

The Ministry has also issued advisories and guidelines for encouraging COVID appropriate behaviour, monitoring of Child Care Institutions and coping strategies during COVID times for mental health support to children and care givers.

A guideline providing a responsibility matrix defining the role of primary duty holders has also been shared with the States/UTs.

Uttar Pradesh with 158 cases recorded the highest number of orphaned children, followed by Andhra with 119 cases, Maharashtra- 83 cases and Madhya Pradesh – 73 cases, witnessed highest orphaned cases due to COVID 19 in the country.

Click here for Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and for JJA Amendment Bill 2021.