Move Abandoned Children into Adoption in India

1. We conducted a virtual master trainers training in Karnataka on vulnerability mapping in partnership with the Directorate of Child Protection the state. The masters trainers would conduct trainings for Anganwadi Workers across the state on child rights, child protection and adoption awareness using material shared by us.
2. We are in the process of connecting children and families in need of support with Government social welfare schemes in Madhya Pradesh. These children and families had been identified by Anganwadi workers as part of our vulnerability mapping project in Madhya Pradesh. At present we are conducting social investigation of cases identified and sharing the information with district authorities for support.
3. We are conducting virtual capacity building sessions for 2 Government run child care institutions in the district of Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh. The objective is to help them provide better care and services to children to children in their care.

Catalysts for Social Action (CSA) partnered with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Indore Division, Madhya Pradesh for a pilot project to train 8000 Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) in 4 districts of the Division with an objective of training AWWs to identify vulnerable children in their area and report them to appropriate authorities for necessary action. The pilot run was an eye-opener, with nearly 2000 children identified who were possibly in need of support, care, and protection. We conducted around 400 urgent investigations of children’s cases that needed immediate attention. This information will be submitted to the district authorities for action.

We also created a Video to increase awareness for the same.

You can view the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81QrICknKaE&t=4s

Links:

• Surakshit Bachpan Video

In the last three months, post completion of our Anganwadi Worker trainings about which we mentioned in our previous report, we have been involved in collating and analysing information received from the Anganwadi Workers. Following their training, the Anganwadi Workers had conducted a survey in their respective local areas to identify children in need of support and protection. We received more than 2061 survey forms from the 4 districts where the project was implemented.

As of now, we have been able to do a detailed analysis data of one district, which is Indore. 650 cases of children said to be in need of care and protection were reported from this district, of which 293 were male and 357 were female. Most children were in the age group of less than 10 years followed by 11-15 years. 47% of the children lived with a single parent, whereas 30% lived with a relative and 16% lived with their parents. We did a preliminary inspection of the survey forms to identify cases which needed priority attention.

43 cases were such that the children who needed high priority support, whereas 74 were those of medium priority and 58 of low priority.

In the coming weeks, we plan to complete the analysis of data from each of the districts where the survey was conducted, and submit our report to the Government for action on identified cases.