The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal Ministry for the administration of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act, 2015) which is the primary legislation for ensuring safety, security, dignity and well-being of children and is implemented by all the States and Union Territories (UTs). The Act creates statutory structures at the State and District levels which include State Child Protection Society, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), District Child Protection Units. It also provides for establishment of Child Care Institutions (CCIs).

Under the JJ Act 2015 (Sections 27-30), the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) have been empowered to take decisions with regard to the children in need of care and protection, keeping their best interest in mind. They are also mandated to monitor the function of the Child Care Institutions (CCIs). As per Section 106 of the JJ Act 2015, the primary responsibility for the implementation of the Act lies with the State Governments and Union Territory (UT) Administrations. At the national and state level, the JJ Act provides the National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights to monitor the implementation of the Act (Section 109).

Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely ‘Mission Vatsalya’ in all States and Union Territories on predefined cost sharing basis between the Central and the State Governments to deliver various services for children in difficult circumstances including orphan children. The scheme provides institutional care and non-institutional care. Child Care Institutions (CCIs) established under the Mission Vatsalya scheme provide, inter-alia, age-appropriate education, access to vocational training, recreation, health care, counselling etc. Under Non-Institutional Care Service, support is provided through Sponsorship, Foster Care and After Care.

Mission Vatsalya promotes family based non-institutional care of children in difficult circumstances based on the principle of institutionalization of children as a measure of last resort. Under non-institutional care, support is provided to the children through Sponsorship, Foster Care, Adoption and After Care. The scheme provides Rs.4000/- per month to children eligible for non-institutional care (Sponsorship/ Foster Care/ Aftercare).

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed an integrated unified Mission Vatsalya Portal in consultation and coordination with States and UTs for stakeholders at State and district levels for service delivery and real-time monitoring. The TrackChild portal for Missing/Found Children, and Khoya-Paya application for Missing/Sighted Children have been integrated with this unified Mission Vatsalya Portal. The TrackChild module of the Mission Vatsalya portal is implemented with support and involvement of various stakeholders namely Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railways, State Governments and UT Administrations, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, National Legal Services Authority, etc. Standard operating procedure have been issued in this regard. Advisories have also been issued to all States and UTs including Director General of Police of all States & UTs and other stakeholders regarding implementation of the portal. It is also integrated with the Crime and Criminal Tracking & Network Systems (CCTNS) of the Ministry of Home Affairs which allows interoperability in terms of matching of FIRs of missing children with data base of Mission Vatsalya Portal to trace and match missing children by the State and UT police concerned. Further, through Khoya Paya module, any citizen can report about any missing or sighted child.

The emergency response and outreach service under Mission Vatsalya is provided through Toll-free Child Helpline (#1098) which is a 24x7x365 service for children in difficult circumstances. It is integrated with the Emergency Response Support System-112 (ERSS-112) Helpline of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Women Helpline (181). Dedicated WCD-Control Room at State level for Child Helpline have been set up in all the 36 States and UTs.

An Application – MASI (Monitoring App for Seamless Inspection) has been developed by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which enables real time monitoring of the Child Care Institutions (CCIs) and for monitoring and rehabilitation of Children in Street Situation the NCPCR has launched a “CiSS application” under the Baal Swaraj portal. NCPCR has also upgraded its existing E-Baal Nidan portal to a more advanced IT platform for easier redressal of complaints and more effective disposal of cases. In addition, the Go Home and Re-Unite (GHAR) portal of NCPCR has been integrated with Mission Vatsalya Portal.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Smt. Savitri Thakur in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question.

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