PATNA: Bihar has taken the caste tag to its Child Care Institutes (CCIs). The inmates of such institutes who are yet to be adopted will be put under the general category and their residential certificates would be the CCIs which they belong to.
Those who have been adopted from the CCIs (orphanages) would be issued the caste of their foster parents and their residential certificates will mention the address of their foster parents. Four upper castes fall under the general category (Brahmin, Bhumihar, Kayastha, Rajputs) and the rest have categories such as SC, ST and OBC and Mahadalits.
In a first such move, the government has directed all districts to follow the guidelines for issuing the caste, residential and income certificates to such kids, said director, Social Welfare Department, Raj Kumar. There are 79 CCIs in Bihar with overn 1,500 inmates.
The general administration department on August 25 issued a directive to ensure compliance of the order “in the larger interest of present and past CCI inmates”. The government said the lack of basic paperwork has deprived such children of benefits in education, employment and many other schemes.
The yet-to-adopted children, too, will benefit from the decision. The social welfare department is already training officials and staff of other states through Child Protection Management Information System and the CLTS software developed on the adoption system.