Throughout Thailand, hundreds of private children’s homes have become established largely under the radar of the government ( Sawatzky, 2018 , A hidden crisis: The proliferation of private children’s homes in Thailand). This report will look at One Sky Foundation’s experience over six years to establish holistic child and family support services as a viable alternative to the long-established reliance on private children’s homes in the rural border district of Sangkhlaburi. The report will look at the challenges, successes and learnings in the journey to keep families together.
Debates about the different forms of alternative care, such as institutional, residential or kinship care, have been prevalent since long, with differing consensus influenced by factors such as demographics, law and policy, available resources and existing care set-ups.The decision of determining the optimal kind of care for each child requires individual screening.It is based on the likeliness of the impact of care on every child's well-being and development.Policies and child welfare laws, in India, so far, have always prioritized keeping the child in residential care without taking into account whether the current system is composed enough to take up the challenges and hindrances of placing the child by taking kin into account.Discussed below are two stories which reflect the journeys of two out-of-home care children.
The Indian Judicial System lags in addressing child trafficking, as it does not yet have a dedicated Act or law to address the issue of either human or child trafficking. The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill of 2018 still awaits a nod from the Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, to be implemented. However, a network of other laws, policies and schemes sets out measures to provide some preventive and rehabilitative services for children who are vulnerable to trafficking or have been trafficked. These include children who have lost one or both parents, live on streets, belong to low socio-economic background and have been abused, among others. Some of the laws and policies regarding safeguarding of children include the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015; Mission Vatsalya, 2022 and Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The mentioned laws and policies have set up key mechanisms for child protection by the government in the Indian context. This article looks to identify such provisions across the Indian legislative and programmatic landscape that are instrumental in keeping children in the care of family as far as possible and providing them safe out-of-home care where family care cannot be provided. It also reviews how these provisions set up, or fail to set up, a safety net around children to protect them from trafficking. The article undertakes a critical analysis of child protection measures set up by the government in India to identify good practices as well as gaps in the judicial and policy landscape of child protection and trafficking. It analyses the Guidelines on Mission Vatsalya, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
The enactment of new legislations and policies and establishment of proper implementation agencies are considered the fundamental elements of modernisation. Likewise, in India, the child welfare sector is witnessing a paradigm shift after the implementation of juvenile justice acts and the establishment of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). The policy documents suggest that institutionalisation of a child must be the last resort; hence, the ideal situation is deinstitutionalising children from institutions to other care facilities. Childcare staff have to intervene effectively with the stakeholders to find out a more suitable option than institutionalisation. This process demands professionals with proper skills and a scientific understanding of the multifaceted issues of vulnerable children. The process would yield the desired benefits only under this circumstance. Thus, the role of childcare staff is crucial in the deinstitutionalisation process. In this study on childcare staff in children’s homes of Kasaragod district of Kerala, the researcher adopted a descriptive design and selected all registered children’s homes for the study purpose. The data was collected from childcare staff through an interview schedule and Kuppuswami’s socio-economic scale. The major finding of the study is that the childcare staff in these institutions are not meeting the prescribed standards envisioned by the government. This under-skilled and non-professional workforce needs a transformation to achieve the desired output.
In Pakistan, research (within academia and outside of it) lacks discussion and analysis of the policy, legal, administrative, institutional issues, challenges and barriers in addressing recidivism among juveniles. Therefore, this article’s primary aim is to understand the different factors that prevent children from recidivism; or instead, they contribute to juveniles’ developing tendency to re-offend. Three children between 15 to 18 years of age were interviewed at the superintendent of the Youthful Offender Industrial School (YOIS) in Karachi; also, an interview was conducted with the Director Reclamation and Probation, Sindh. The findings reveal that partial legal and institutional provisions and arrangements exist to address recidivism. However, these provisions are not implemented to stop children from re-offending. The analysis also shows that detention exists, but they did not have rehabilitation programmes, whereas community-based rehabilitation did not exist. Instead, these places (institutions and communities) educate children on how the crimes are being committed. The study’s findings suggest serious policy measures to deal with recidivism among male juveniles through diverse programmes and training and sensitisation of the police and judicial officials and the community members.
Widely across the globe, COVID has placed massive strain on various parameters of life, including child protection, health, education and economic systems. Apart from these visible threats, this situation has an ongoing devastating impact on the mental health and psychological well-being of people. The word of the law enforces care and support for children with disadvantages, disabilities and vulnerabilities on caregivers, Managers and Staff, managing Alternative Care programmes, but the spirit of such child protection laws also underlines the importance of caring for caregivers, especially in childcare institutions (CCIs). The well-being of the caregivers is the cornerstone of every well-functioning childcare institution and other residential care spaces. This article is designed to document the mental health status of caregivers (residential staff staying with children), in residential care spaces in the COVID times and to determine how the new stresses impacted them and the coping patterns they acquired in current situation; across different countries of South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This exploratory rapid assessment project aimed to reach out to the registered childcare homes/ institutions, across the South Asian region, with the help of different NGOs, as well as Government mechanisms. The data was collected through purposive sampling and analysed quantitatively where the sample included the selected caregivers of participating CCIs across these nations. This study aimed to synthesize the responses of caregivers across the region; develop an analysis, which may help authorities to rethink, reform and strengthen the current practices, in order to develop approach-centred strategies for improving the well-being of caregivers as this has a direct bearing on the well-being of children in their care. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, for the residential caregivers, the access to external resources, including physical support from professional staff, has become restricted to bare minimum, due to lockdown and quarantine measures. Any interventions to prevent, treat and mitigate the effects of COVID among caregivers needed to be taken at the ground level by the care team management.
Kiran Modi, Gurneet Kaur Kalra, Leena Prasad et al.
The transition process into adulthood from adolescence is a difficult period for many young adults. It is especially taxing for orphaned and separated children (OSC) populations, who tend to have traumatic past histories and inconsistent psychosocial support systems. Due to such adverse factors, OSCs may be more vulnerable to mental health risks during transition and beyond. However, there is currently limited research on the difficulties OSCs face during this period and how they influence their mental and emotional well-being. This study describes the mental health outcomes and transition experiences of a group of young adults who are currently transitioning (aftercare) or have already transitioned (alumni) out of a residential care organisation for OSCs in New Delhi, India. A sample of aftercare and alumni (n=50) were administered questionnaires on anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction, as well as qualitative semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate the diverse mental health trajectories prevalent in this population, showing both risks and areas of resilience. While a majority of the sample is experiencing some level of anxiety and clinically significant levels of depression, only a small percentage reported being dissatisfied with life. From the overall sample, two sub-groups were identified with having either high or low mental health risks. More individuals from the high risk group reported that the transition process was very hard and that they had less social support than did individuals from the low risk group. However, the complexity of patterns and differences in needs across the sample highlight the importance of addressing complex mental health issues on an individualised basis. Overall, these results emphasise the necessity of addressing the challenges of transition age youth. Specifically, analysis focuses on how qualitative information can be used to supplement quantitative measures to understand how best to support the emotional and mental health needs of vulnerable populations.
Namratha Atluri, Mounika Pogula, Riti Chandrashekar et al.
COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented human and health crisis and has been affecting lives in many forms. What seemed to be a health crisis eventually became a major ongoing global economic crisis. Sector-wide disruptions are threatening both short- and long-term livelihoods and well-being of millions of youth around the globe, especially youth from vulnerable communities. Business closures threatened the operations and soundness of the enterprises resulting in layoffs and wage losses, affecting a major chunk of youth including the young care leavers of alternative care programmes in Asia. This called for customised interventions and support for such young care leavers. Immediate actions were needed for managing their mental health, for maintaining education continuity and for reskilling of such young care leavers to prepare them to cope with the pandemic. This article is based on the learning and experiences of SOS Children’s Villages responses to supporting nearly 1,500 care leavers in various Asian countries. SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring quality care and protection of children and youth through its various alternative care programmes in 15 countries in Asia region. SOS Children’s villages responded to COVID-19 pandemic by supporting youth and care leavers in SOS family-like care. Primarily, these countries reported that the school closures mandated to combat the spread of the virus affected the education and learning of all the children and youth in their care. All projects in Asia started reaching out to the care leavers and started extending a wide range of support to them with both short- and long-term interventions. This article covers SOS Children’s Villages youth programmes, especially from 11 countries of Asia region—Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Purnima K. Jindal, Manoj K. Suryawanshi, Rajeev Kumar
Abstract An especially critical task is to raise awareness of the effects of war on children, in general, and with reference to specific children whose circumstances might enhance their vulnerability. Starting points, from which we begin our discussion, are the abduction and separation of 3-year-old identical twins during the Hamas attacks on the South of Israel, on October 7, 2023. Emphasis is given to these twins’ circumstances and to all children’s heightened vulnerability to the detrimental effects of war-related trauma, including mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Specific attention is given to the profound bond between identical twins and the devastating consequences of separation on their immediate and long-term emotional well-being. Drawing on research findings surrounding children at war and on historical evidence for the effects of twin separation on individuals exposed to war, our commentary underscores the urgent need for awareness and condemnation of the direct targeting of children. We advocate the preservation of family ties as essential for fostering children’s resilience and emotional support. We also call upon professional organizations and the international community to prioritize the reunification of children with their families as a moral imperative in safeguarding the well-being and future of innocent children exposed to terrorism and conflict in war-torn regions.
Various studies have been published on the occurrence of orphanage trafficking in Nepal. These studies have focused on how orphanage trafficking occurs but have not investigated how orphanage trafficking is responded to from a legal perspective. This article analyses the legal framework for prosecuting orphanage trafficking in Nepal. It considers the available legislative frameworks for pursuing prosecution and makes recommendations for Nepal to reform their anti-trafficking law to include orphanage trafficking and to align with international law.
