NEW DELHI: Over 60,000 children are living in institutional care in India, with Tamil Nadu continuing to take the lead with as many as 10,000 children living in these care homes, according to government data.
Though the number of children living in these institutional care under the Mission Vatsalya scheme declined this year, the childcare institutions network further spread across the country.
Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur in the Lok Sabha said the ministry is administering the 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 in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) and Children in Conflict with Law (CCL) by catering to their basic needs through care, protection, development, treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration.
Tamil Nadu housed the highest number of orphan children in their institutional care homes for the third year in a row. In 2023-24, the figure was 10,118, the minister said while sharing the data.
The southern states saw 13,877 orphan children being housed in these care homes in 2021-22, the number dipped to 7,785 in 2022-23.
The other states that housed highest number of children in 2023-24 are West Bengal (4744), Maharashtra (3495), Uttar Pradesh (3226), Gujarat (3195), Karnataka (3110), Rajasthan (2733), Madhya Pradesh (2597), Telangana (2243), Bihar (2227), Andhra Pradesh (1546), Assam (1241), Jharkhand (1238), Delhi (1216), Mizoram (1172), Jammu and Kashmir (1104), and Meghalaya (1031).
The minister said the number of care homes have gone up in the last three years. While there were 2,245 institutional care homes in 2021-22, the number went up to 2,305 in 2022-23. In 2023-24, there were 2,450 care homes, in 2024-25, the number went up to 3,010.
In 2024-25, the figure was 318. In 2021, it was 225, the next year it was 221. In 2023-24, the number of children living in these care homes was 320.
Tamil Nadu was followed by Uttar Pradesh with 24 care homes. The other states with a high number of such institutions are West Bengal (216), Karnataka (212), Rajasthan (182), Odisha (143), Madhya Pradesh (131), Maharashtra (126), Chhattisgarh (110), Bihar (107), Andhra Pradesh (98) and Telangana (92).
The ministry is implementing the centrally-sponsored scheme Mission Vatsalya through the state/ Union Territory (UT) governments on a pre-defined cost-sharing basis between the central and the state governments to deliver various services for CNCP and CCL categories which includes both institutional care and non-institutional care services.
The scheme provides services to children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law for their rehabilitation and social reintegration into the mainstream of society.
The Child Care Institutions established under the scheme support age-appropriate education, access to vocational training, recreation, health care, counselling etc.
Support under non-institutional care is provided by way of sponsorship, foster care and aftercare to children in need of care and protection, the minister added.