Child and family welfare

In short

Child and family welfare is the field of social work practice that protects children from neglect, abuse, exploitation and separation, and strengthens families so children can grow up in them. In India it is a statutory field: practice is defined by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (amended 2021), the POCSO Act, 2012, the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 and the centrally sponsored Mission Vatsalya scheme, delivered through Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, District Child Protection Units and child care institutions. It carries heavy weight in BSW/MSW examinations (Fields of practice, Child welfare, Social legislation papers) and is the single largest recruiter of fresh social work graduates — as Social Worker/Case Worker/Child Welfare Officer in CCIs, DCPU Protection Officers, Anganwadi and ICDS supervisors, Childline and One Stop Centre staff, and programme officers in UNICEF, Save the Children, CRY, Butterflies, Bal Raksha Bharat and CSR foundations. Interviews test the statutory timelines, the difference between a child in need of care and protection and a child in conflict with law, and the principle that institutional care is the last resort.

Explained

Concepts, scope and the rights framework

• Child — under the JJ Act, 2015 and POCSO, 2012, any person who has not completed 18 years of age. The Child Labour Act uses 14 (child) and 14–18 (adolescent); different Acts therefore use different ages.
• Child welfare — the whole set of services, laws and institutions for the wellbeing of children: survival, development, protection and participation. Family welfare in social work means strengthening the family as the child's natural unit of care (counselling, income support, childcare, de-addiction, mediation) — not merely family planning.
• Child protection — the narrower, statutory response to children at risk of or facing violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and trafficking.
• Rights framework: the UNCRC, 1989 (India ratified 11 December 1992) with its four clusters — survival, development, protection, participation — and four general/guiding principles: non-discrimination (Art. 2), best interests of the child (Art. 3), the right to life, survival and development (Art. 6), and respect for the child's views (Art. 12). India also ratified the Optional Protocols on child trafficking/prostitution/pornography and on children in armed conflict (2005).
• Constitutional base: Article 15(3) special provisions for children; 21A free and compulsory education 6–14; 23 trafficking and forced labour; 24 no employment of children below 14 in factories/mines/hazardous work; 39(e) and 39(f) Directive Principles — children not to be abused, to be given opportunities to develop in conditions of freedom and dignity; 45 early childhood care and education below 6; 51A(k) duty of a parent to provide education 6–14.
• National Policy for Children, 2013 — survival, health and nutrition; education and development; protection; participation as the four key priorities; National Plan of Action for Children, 2016.
• Principles in Section 3 of the JJ Act, 2015 (16 principles) — presumption of innocence (up to 18), dignity and worth, participation, best interest, family responsibility, safety, positive measures, non-stigmatising semantics, non-waiver of rights, equality, right to privacy and confidentiality, institutionalisation as a measure of last resort, repatriation and restoration, fresh start, diversion, natural justice.

Who the clients are: classification of children

• Child in need of care and protection (CNCP) — Section 2(14), JJ Act: a child found without home or settled abode or means of subsistence; found working in violation of labour laws; living with a person who has threatened or is likely to injure/abuse the child; mentally ill or ill parents unable to care; abandoned or surrendered; missing or run away; victim of or at imminent risk of sexual abuse, trafficking, child marriage or drug abuse; being or likely to be used for unconscionable gain. Handled by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
• Child in conflict with law (CICL) — Section 2(13): a child alleged or found to have committed an offence, who has not completed 18 years on the date of the offence. Handled by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).
• Offence categories after 2015: petty (IPC/BNS punishment up to 3 years), serious (3–7 years), heinous (minimum 7 years or more). The 2021 Amendment made the offences against children under the JJ Act that carry 3–7 years' imprisonment non-cognizable (Section 86), and clarified that offences with a punishment above 7 years but no minimum prescribed are to be treated as serious, not heinous.
• Preliminary assessment (Section 15): for a child of 16–18 years alleged of a heinous offence, the JJB assesses mental and physical capacity, ability to understand consequences and circumstances; it may order trial as an adult by the Children's Court. Assessment must be completed in 3 months; the JJB takes the help of psychologists/psycho-social experts.
• Other vulnerable groups in practice: children of prisoners, migrant and street-connected children, children with disabilities, HIV-affected children, children orphaned by disaster/COVID (PM CARES for Children), CICL in observation homes, children in child marriage, child labour and trafficking.
• Categories of maltreatment: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect (physical, educational, emotional, medical), exploitation (labour, trafficking, begging). Sexual abuse of children is gender-neutral under POCSO.

Statutory machinery and processes

• Child Welfare Committee (CWC): one per district, a chairperson + 4 members (at least one woman, one expert on children); has the powers of a Metropolitan Magistrate/Judicial Magistrate First Class; sole authority to dispose of cases of CNCP. Sits at least 20 days a month; a child must be produced within 24 hours of being found/rescued.
• CWC process: production → interim order (home, fit person, fit facility, or restoration) → social investigation report (SIR) by the Child Welfare Officer/Probation Officer/social worker within 15 days → Individual Care Plan (ICP) → inquiry completed within 4 months (extendable by 2 months with reasons; for a child below 2 years the timeline for declaring legally free for adoption is shorter) → final order: restoration to family, sponsorship, foster care, adoption, or institutional placement; declaration of a child as legally free for adoption also rests with the CWC.
• Juvenile Justice Board (JJB): a Metropolitan/JMFC magistrate + 2 social worker members (one woman). Inquiry on petty offences to be completed in 4 months (extendable 2); orders available under Section 18 — advice/admonition, group counselling, community service, fine payable by parent, probation under parent/fit person/fit institution (up to 3 years), or Special Home for up to 3 years. No child can be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
• District Child Protection Unit (DCPU): the administrative hub under Mission Vatsalya — DCPO, Protection Officers (institutional and non-institutional care), legal-cum-probation officer, social workers, outreach workers; maintains the district child-protection data, supports CWC/JJB, runs sponsorship and foster care.
• Police: Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) in every district and Child Welfare Police Officer (CWPO) in every police station; a child apprehended is never put in a lock-up or jail.
• Institutions (Section 2): Children's Home (CNCP, care and rehabilitation), Open Shelter (urban/semi-urban, street children, short stay), Observation Home (CICL during inquiry), Special Home (CICL after final order), Place of Safety (16–18 CICL tried as adult / needing secure custody), Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA) (children up to 6 and those free for adoption), Fit Facility/Fit Person. Every CCI must be registered under Section 41 within 6 months of the Act's commencement, with or without grant-in-aid; non-registration is an offence, and the 2021 Amendment required a DM-level inspection/recommendation before registration.
• Oversight: NCPCR and SCPCRs (CPCR Act, 2005) — inquiry into violations, review of laws, examination of complaints; POCSO e-Box; Child Helpline 1098, now integrated with the ERSS-112 emergency response system and run through state governments under Mission Vatsalya; Inspection Committees (state and district), Child Welfare Committees' quarterly review by the District Magistrate (2021 Amendment). Juvenile Justice Fund under Section 105 and Model Rules, 2016 supply the operating detail.

Non-institutional (alternative) care and adoption

• Priority order of placement: biological family → kinship/extended family → adoption (in-country first) → foster care → sponsorship/aftercare → institutional care as the last resort. In practice, restoration and family strengthening come before every other option.
• Sponsorship: cash and services to a child in his/her own family or kin to prevent separation — for destitute, orphan-living-with-extended-family, single-parent or seriously ill-parent households; currently about ₹4,000 per child per month under Mission Vatsalya norms (verify the latest scheme circular, as the unit cost is periodically revised).
• Foster care (Section 44; sponsorship is Section 45): placement of a child in an unrelated family for a short or extended period, approved by the CWC on the SIR and home-study report; group foster care uses a small family-like home. Not a route to adoption, though the Regulations permit a foster parent to apply after a prescribed period.
• Aftercare (Section 46): support for a young person leaving institutional care at 18, up to 21 years (extendable to 23 in exceptional cases) — financial support (about ₹4,000/month), aftercare homes, skill training, placement linkage.
• Adoption law: two parallel routes — the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 (Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs; a private deed-based adoption with no agency) and the JJ Act, 2015 read with the Adoption Regulations, 2022 (secular, applicable to all, mandatory for all children declared legally free for adoption). The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 gives guardianship, not adoption, and is used by those not covered by HAMA.
• CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority) is the statutory central body and the Central Authority under the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993; all in-country and inter-country adoptions run on the CARINGS portal, with SARA, SAAs, AFAAs and District Child Protection Units in the chain.
• Key adoption rules: a surrendering parent gets a 60-day reconsideration period; prospective adoptive parents must be physically, mentally and financially fit, with a composite age limit by child's age-group (e.g. couple's composite age up to 85 years for a child below 2 years); single men cannot adopt a girl child; a minimum 25-year age difference between child and parent; at least a 2-year stable marital relationship for couples; an HSR and seniority-based referral; a pre-adoption foster care period and a post-adoption follow-up for 2 years.
• Major 2021 Amendment change: the adoption order is now passed by the District Magistrate/Additional DM (Section 61) instead of the civil court, operative from 1 September 2022, with appeal to the Divisional Commissioner — intended to cut delays.

Protective legislation touching children and families

• POCSO Act, 2012 (amended 2019): gender-neutral offences — penetrative and aggravated penetrative sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual harassment, use of a child for pornography; presumption of guilt on the accused, mandatory reporting by any person (Sections 19–21 — failure to report is an offence), child-friendly recording of statement by a woman police officer in plain clothes at the child's residence, Special Courts with trial to be completed within 1 year, no aggressive cross-examination, support person, and POCSO Rules, 2020 with interim compensation. Death penalty is available for aggravated penetrative sexual assault after 2019.
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006: marriage below 18 (girl) and 21 (boy) is punishable and voidable at the option of the contracting party within 2 years of attaining majority; Child Marriage Prohibition Officers; a marriage by abduction/trafficking is void. A Bill to raise the minimum age for women to 21 has been under consideration — treat the current legal age as 18 unless a notified amendment says otherwise.
• Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 as amended in 2016: complete prohibition of employment of a child below 14 in any occupation (except helping in a family enterprise after school hours/holidays and in the audio-visual industry subject to safeguards), and of adolescents (14–18) in hazardous occupations/processes; offences cognizable, Child and Adolescent Labour Rehabilitation Fund; NCLP/PENCIL portal. The four Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025 replaced the Factories, Minimum Wages, Industrial Disputes and BOCW Acts; the OSH Code carries the prohibition on employing persons below 14, while the 1986/2016 child labour Act remains the principal child labour law.
• RTE Act, 2009: free and compulsory elementary education 6–14, 25% EWS/disadvantaged intake in private unaided schools, no detention or expulsion to Class VIII (states have modified detention under the 2019 amendment), no corporal punishment, SMCs.
• Family-facing laws used in child welfare practice: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (Protection Officer, protection/residence/monetary/custody orders; children are covered as aggrieved persons), maintenance under Section 144 of the BNSS, 2023 (the provision corresponding to Section 125 CrPC) and under personal laws, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, maternity benefit under the Code on Social Security, 2020 (which replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 from 21 November 2025: 26 weeks' paid leave, crèche in establishments with 50+ employees), the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act as amended in 2021, the PC-PNDT Act, 1994 (sex-selection), the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 and ART (Regulation) Act, 2021, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 and the trafficking offences carried forward in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (section numbers differ from the IPC).

Schemes, programmes and service delivery

• Mission Vatsalya (since 2021-22; merged the erstwhile ICPS/Child Protection Services): statutory bodies, service delivery structures, institutional care, non-institutional care (sponsorship, foster care, aftercare), emergency outreach (child helpline), training and capacity building; funding is shared 60:40 with states (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states, 100% for UTs without legislature).
• Mission Shakti (umbrella for women, with child-linked components): Sambal sub-scheme — One Stop Centres (Sakhi), Women Helpline 181, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Nari Adalats; Samarthya — Shakti Sadan (merged swadhar/ujjawala), Sakhi Niwas, Palna (creche/National Creche Scheme), PMMVY (₹5,000 maternity benefit in instalments for the first live birth, and ₹6,000 for a second child who is a girl under PMMVY 2.0).
• Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (restructured ICDS): six services — supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition and health education — delivered through the Anganwadi centre by the AWW and helper; Poshan Tracker, growth monitoring, Take-Home Ration, ECCE curriculum (Aadharshila/Navchetana), SAM/MAM management.
• Other key programmes: PM CARES for Children (children who lost both parents/guardian to COVID — monthly stipend from 18 and a ₹10 lakh corpus at 23), Mission Indradhanush/U-WIN immunisation, RBSK (child health screening for 4Ds — defects at birth, deficiencies, diseases, development delays), Janani Suraksha Yojana and JSSK, Mid-Day Meal/PM POSHAN, Samagra Shiksha, Bal Swaraj portal (NCPCR), Child Marriage Free India campaign, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (declining child sex ratio).
• Social work methods used: casework (intake, assessment, ICP, counselling, follow-up, closure), group work (life-skills and peer groups in CCIs, adolescent groups), community organisation (Bal Panchayats, Child Protection Committees at village/ward level, Child-Friendly Panchayats), social action and advocacy, administration (CCI management, registration, audit), research and documentation (SIR, HSR, ICP, follow-up reports, case records).
• Core skills and roles: child-friendly interviewing, non-leading questioning in abuse cases, child rights-based needs assessment, SIR/HSR writing, court liaison and testimony, networking with police/health/education/legal aid (DLSA), psycho-social first aid, mandatory reporting, confidentiality and informed consent of child and guardian.
• Limitations in practice: vacancies and untrained CWC/JJB members, unregistered institutions, delays in declaring children legally free for adoption, institutionalisation used as the default, weak non-institutional care uptake, poor aftercare, inadequate budgets per child, under-reporting of intra-family abuse, misuse of mandatory reporting in adolescent consensual relationships, and thin data systems.

Key points

• Child - below 18 under the JJ Act and POCSO; the Child Labour Act separately defines child (<14) and adolescent (14-18).
• CNCP vs CICL - CNCP (victim/at-risk) goes to the CWC; CICL (alleged offender) goes to the JJB; never interchange them.
• 24 hours - a child found or apprehended must be produced before the CWC/JJB within 24 hours, excluding travel time.
• 4 + 2 months - the outer limit for a CWC inquiry or a JJB inquiry into a petty offence; 3 months for a preliminary assessment under Section 15.
• Last resort principle - institutional care is used only after family restoration, kinship care, adoption, foster care and sponsorship have been ruled out.
• Section 41 registration - every child care institution must be registered under the JJ Act, aided or not; running an unregistered CCI is punishable.
• JJ Amendment Act, 2021 - adoption orders by the District Magistrate, offences against children under the Act punishable with 3–7 years made non-cognizable, stricter eligibility and DM oversight of CWC/DCPU; effective 1 September 2022.
• Adoption Regulations, 2022 + CARA/CARINGS - the single legal channel for non-HAMA adoptions; 60-day reconsideration for a surrendering parent.
• POCSO, 2012 - gender-neutral, presumption of guilt, mandatory reporting, Special Court trial within a year, child-friendly procedure.
• PCMA, 2006 - child marriage is punishable and voidable within 2 years of majority; CMPOs enforce it.
• CLPRA (amended 2016) - total ban below 14 with narrow family-enterprise exception; adolescents barred from hazardous work.
• Mission Vatsalya - the funding and delivery scheme (60:40 centre-state) covering statutory bodies, CCIs, sponsorship, foster care, aftercare and the child helpline.
• Mission Shakti / Poshan 2.0 - the family and nutrition side: One Stop Centres, Palna crèches, PMMVY, Anganwadi services and growth monitoring.
• UNCRC 1989 (India 1992) - survival, development, protection, participation; best interests as the paramount consideration.
• NCPCR/SCPCR under the CPCR Act, 2005 - statutory monitoring, inquiry and complaint-handling bodies for child rights.
• Aftercare to 21 - care leavers get financial and skill support; a frequent interview and exam question.
• Key documents - Social Investigation Report (15 days), Home Study Report, Individual Care Plan, follow-up and restoration reports.
• Family strengthening is prevention - sponsorship, crèches, maintenance, DV Act remedies and livelihood linkage keep children out of institutions.

Formulas and examples

Example 1 — mortality indicators for a district (one year). Live births 12,500; infant deaths 410; of these, neonatal deaths 290; deaths under 5 years 520; maternal deaths 11.

• IMR = 410 ÷ 12,500 × 1,000 = 32.8 per 1,000 live births
• NMR = 290 ÷ 12,500 × 1,000 = 23.2 (neonatal deaths are 290/410 = 70.7% of infant deaths — the usual Indian pattern, so newborn care is the priority)
• U5MR = 520 ÷ 12,500 × 1,000 = 41.6 per 1,000
• MMR = 11 ÷ 12,500 × 1,00,000 = 88 per 1,00,000 live births

Interpretation: the district IMR (32.8) is well above the SRS all-India level of 25 (2023) and close to the NFHS-5 (2019-21) estimate of 35.2; the MMR of 88 equals the SRS all-India figure of 88 for 2021-23 (cite the bulletin year — both are revised annually).

Example 2 — child sex ratio. Census-type count: boys 0-6 = 52,400; girls 0-6 = 48,100.

• CSR = 48,100 ÷ 52,400 × 1,000 = 918 girls per 1,000 boys
• Against Census 2011 all-India CSR of 919, the block is at the national level but far below the biologically expected 950-960, so the district qualifies for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and PC-PNDT enforcement focus.

Example 3 — non-institutional care budget for a DCPU. 150 children on sponsorship, 20 in foster care, 15 young persons in aftercare; unit cost ₹4,000 per child per month (current Mission Vatsalya norm, revised from time to time); 12 months.

• Sponsorship = 150 × 4,000 × 12 = ₹72,00,000
• Foster care = 20 × 4,000 × 12 = ₹9,60,000
• Aftercare = 15 × 4,000 × 12 = ₹7,20,000
• Total = ₹88,80,000 (₹88.8 lakh); Centre's share at 60% = ₹53.28 lakh, State's share = ₹35.52 lakh
• Comparison: a 100-bed children's home costing, say, ₹2,000 per child per month for food and maintenance plus staff salaries easily exceeds ₹1 crore a year for 100 children — non-institutional care reaches 185 children for less.

Example 4 — nutrition survey in an Anganwadi cluster. 480 children aged 6-59 months measured: 166 below −2 SD height-for-age, 92 below −2 SD weight-for-height, 154 below −2 SD weight-for-age.

• Stunting = 166 ÷ 480 × 100 = 34.6%
• Wasting = 92 ÷ 480 × 100 = 19.2%
• Underweight = 154 ÷ 480 × 100 = 32.1%

Against NFHS-5 all-India values (stunting 35.5%, wasting 19.3%, underweight 32.1%), the cluster is at roughly the national average — chronic undernutrition (stunting) is the dominant problem, so the response is maternal nutrition, IYCF counselling and THR compliance, not only SAM treatment.

Example 5 — statutory timeline for an abandoned infant. A child of about 8 months is found on 5 January 2026 and produced before the CWC on 6 January 2026 (within 24 hours).

• Police/CWPO must report and advertise the child as missing/abandoned; the inquiry for a child below 2 years must be completed and the child declared legally free for adoption within 2 months of production → by about 6 March 2026 (for a child above 2 years the period is 4 months).
• The child is then uploaded on CARINGS by the Specialised Adoption Agency and reserved for in-country adoption for the prescribed period before inter-country referral (currently 30 days under the Adoption Regulations, 2022 — confirm the live CARINGS workflow).
• After referral and acceptance, the adoption order is passed by the District Magistrate under Section 61, followed by 2 years of post-adoption follow-up.

Where it is used

• Government child protection system: DCPU District Child Protection Officer, Protection Officer (Institutional/Non-Institutional), Legal-cum-Probation Officer, CWC and JJB social worker members, CWPO liaison, Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, ICDS Supervisor/CDPO under WCD departments.
• Child care institutions and adoption agencies: Superintendent, Child Welfare Officer, Case Worker, Counsellor, House Parent in children's homes, open shelters, observation and special homes, and Specialised Adoption Agencies working on CARINGS.
• NGOs and INGOs: CRY, Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children), Butterflies, Pratham, Childline partner organisations, SOS Children's Villages, Udayan Care, Aangan Trust, UNICEF and state child protection resource agencies — roles in case management, research, training, advocacy and M&E.
• Health, education and justice interfaces: POCSO support persons and victim assistance, DLSA legal aid clinics, One Stop Centres, Shakti Sadan, hospital medical social workers handling abuse and newborn abandonment, school counsellors and SMC facilitation under the RTE Act.
• CSR and foundations: Tata Trusts, Azim Premji Foundation, HCL Foundation, Wipro Cares and corporate CSR teams funding child education, nutrition, anti-child-labour and child-protection projects (the companies' CSR obligation under Section 135 of the Companies Act is covered in a separate topic).
• Monitoring and research: NCPCR/SCPCR inquiry teams, NIPCCD/National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development training and research, NFHS/SRS/Census-based situational analyses, district child-protection data systems and Poshan Tracker/Bal Swaraj dashboards.

Interview questions

• Q: What is the difference between a child in need of care and protection and a child in conflict with law? A: A CNCP is a child at risk or victimised, defined in Section 2(14) and dealt with by the Child Welfare Committee; a CICL is a child alleged to have committed an offence, defined in Section 2(13) and dealt with by the Juvenile Justice Board.
• Q: At what age is a child's age reckoned for a child in conflict with law? A: On the date of the offence, not the date of apprehension or production — a person may therefore be above 18 at trial and still be a child for the JJ Act.
• Q: Can a 17-year-old be tried as an adult in India? A: Yes, if the offence is heinous, the child was 16-18 at the time, and the JJB's preliminary assessment under Section 15 concludes that the child had the mental and physical capacity and understanding to commit the offence; the Children's Court then decides.
• Q: Who declares a child legally free for adoption? A: The Child Welfare Committee, after completing its inquiry — within about 2 months for a child below 2 years and 4 months otherwise — after which the child is listed on CARINGS by the Specialised Adoption Agency.
• Q: What changed in adoption after the JJ Amendment Act, 2021? A: The adoption order is now issued by the District Magistrate/ADM under Section 61 instead of a civil court, with appeal to the Divisional Commissioner; the DM also got oversight of CWCs, DCPUs and CCI registration.
• Q: Why is institutionalisation called the last resort? A: Section 3 of the JJ Act makes family responsibility and the child's best interest paramount; institutions weaken attachment, schooling continuity and identity, cost more per child, and carry abuse risk — so restoration, kinship care, adoption, foster care and sponsorship are tried first.
• Q: What is mandatory reporting under POCSO? A: Sections 19-21 require any person who apprehends or has knowledge of a sexual offence against a child to report it to the SJPU or police; failure by any person, and especially by a person in charge of an institution, is itself an offence.
• Q: As a case worker, how would you interview a child who may have been sexually abused? A: In a private, child-friendly place with a trusted adult present, using open, non-leading questions in the child's language, recording the child's own words, avoiding repeated interviews, and reporting under POCSO while protecting confidentiality.
• Q: Difference between sponsorship and foster care? A: Sponsorship gives financial and service support to a child living in his or her own or kin family to prevent separation; foster care places the child temporarily with an approved unrelated family under a CWC order.
• Q: What is aftercare and why does it matter? A: Support under Section 46 for a young person leaving a CCI at 18, up to 21 years (extendable to 23) — stipend, housing, education and skill training — because care leavers otherwise face homelessness, trafficking and destitution at the moment they lose legal protection.
• Q: A family is poor and wants to admit its three children to a children's home. What do you do? A: Poverty alone is not a ground for institutionalisation; assess the family, link it to sponsorship, ICDS/PM POSHAN, crèche, livelihood and social security entitlements, and keep the children in the family with a monitored care plan.
• Q: Which scheme funds the child protection system and in what share? A: Mission Vatsalya, with central and state shares usually 60:40 (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states, 100% central for UTs without legislature).
• Q: How does the law treat child marriage already performed? A: It is punishable for the adult husband, those who perform, conduct or abet it, and the guardians; the marriage is voidable at the option of the child-party within two years of attaining majority, and void if it involved abduction or trafficking.

Common mistakes

• Confusing the CWC and the JJB, or saying "juvenile delinquent" and "juvenile" — the 2015 Act deliberately uses child in conflict with law and non-stigmatising language.
• Quoting a single age of 18 for every child law — the Child Labour Act's thresholds (14 and 18) and the PCMA's 18/21 are different, and HAMA has its own adoption conditions.
• Writing that the 2015 Act allows all 16-18 year olds to be tried as adults — it applies only to heinous offences and only after a JJB preliminary assessment.
• Saying adoption orders are passed by courts or that CARA passes the order — the CWC declares the child legally free, CARA/CARINGS regulates the process, and the DM passes the order since 1 September 2022.
• Treating poverty, a single parent, or a disability as a ground for institutional admission, instead of invoking sponsorship and family strengthening.
• Missing or inventing statutory timelines (24 hours, 15-day SIR, 4+2 month inquiry, 60-day reconsideration, 3-month assessment) — examiners award marks specifically for these.
• Mixing up stunting, wasting and underweight, or reporting a prevalence without the denominator of children assessed.
• Describing schemes by their withdrawn names — ICPS is now Mission Vatsalya, ICDS is restructured as Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, and several women-and-child schemes are now sub-components of Mission Shakti.

Related topics

Juvenile justice and correctional social work · Medical and psychiatric social work · Social work with women and gender-based violence · Social legislation and human rights in India · Social case work and case management · Community organisation and rural/urban development programmes