Orphans- Meaning

In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and
AIDS (UNAIDS) define an orphan as-
“Any child who has lost one parent.” A child can either be a paternal orphan or maternal
orphan.

The legal definition used in the United States is-

“a minor bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or
separation or loss from, both parents.”
Orphans in India- Legal Definition
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 defines an orphan as a
child—

 who is without biological or adoptive parents or legal guardian; or

 whose legal guardian is not willing to take, or capable of taking care of the
child.

The Act also differentiates an orphan with an abandoned child, where the latter means the
child deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians, who has been declared as
abandoned by the Committee after due inquiry.
Orphans in India- Definition

Source- Indian Express (Apr 18, 2016)

Such ambiguity embedded in the definition, itself, is problematic. It limits the scope of
institutional interventions meant for children.
Orphans in India- Statistics
As per a study done by SOS Children Villages (2001) - India is home to over 20
million Orphans
which is equal to

about 4% of their population in India

Orphan
or Children
More than the population of Delhi

Of them, parents of only 0.3% children have died and rest have been abandoned.
The study defines an orphan as a child who has been abandoned or has lost both
parents.
Orphans in India- Reasons for High Numbers
The SOS study recognised these reasons for high proportion of abandoned children

Poverty Social Unrest and Terror

(war, naxalism, etc.)

Natural Disasters such as Floods, tsunamis

Other than these three, child trafficking and low adoption rates can also attributed
to be the reasons for such high number of orphans in India.
Source- India Times
• As per the RTI enquiry made by an activist,
the low rate of adoption in some of the states
is due to absence of government recognised
Adoption agencies

• States like Bihar, Mizoram, Manipur,

Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh do not
have any registered agency due to which
adoption of children has taken a hit in these
states.

Source- A report by Daily Mail UK

State Shelters in India
Homelessness is a major issue in India. To address this, some of the safeguards provided by the GOI are-

Constitutional Guarantee
under Article 21 (Right to
Protection of Life and Personal
Liberty), Article 14 and 19.

National Schemes such as

National Urban Livelihood
Mission since September 2013
State Shelters in India (2)
• According to the latest official data (Census 2011), merely 658 shelters
have been created since the launch of the Shelter for Homeless
programme under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) in 2013.

• These shelters across the country cater to a total homeless population of

35,000. This does not even amount to five percent of the total urban
homeless population of 9.38 lakh.

• There are only 658 shelters in 18 states. Of these, states such as West
Bengal, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh hold a
poor record of creating between one to five shelters each.
Read detailed report here
Read detailed report here
Issues faced in State Shelters
A Drop in the ocean- 658 existing shelters across the country
caters to a total homeless population of 35,000, which does
not even amount to five percent of the total urban homeless
population of 9.38 lakh (Census 2011).

Unsanitary, undignified and disrespectful- the present shelters

in urban areas fail to provide a dignified life to the India’s
poorest.

Safety and Abuse- Children and women are the worst hit.
State Shelter for Children- A reality check!
- In the nightmarish story from Muzaffarpur, a chairman and a member of the district
child welfare committee (CWC) are among the 11 accused of sexually assaulting the
very children they were appointed to protect. (report here)

- It’s difficult to get an exact count of the total number of shelters in India catering to
different groups—the aged, the differently-abled, the homeless, women, beggars,
children at risk, substance abusers seeking rehabilitation. A survey by the Union
women and child development ministry in 2016 found over 9,000 shelters for children
alone across India, though the number of registered ones was only 2,000.

- Another horrifying story emerged from eastern UP when A 12-year-old girl, who had
run away from a shelter in Deoria town, complained to the police about physical abuse
at the shelter.
Source- Outlook Survey
Read the report here
Non-Governmental Interventions for Orphans
Save the Children
Program Approach-
Sensitization>Life skill
Name of the Program- Child
Training>Rescue
Protection
Operations>Vocational
Training

Program Core Areas- child

labour, child participation, Program Beneficiaries- In
child protection in 2017, Save the Children
emergency, child trafficking, saved 4.09 lakh children
corporal punishment, from different kinds of harm
inadequate care.
Name of the program- SOS FBC and SOS FSP
Kilkari Rainbow Home
Name of the Program-Rainbow Home
Established in- 2008
Beneficiaries- over 100 girls
Location- New Delhi
Program Approach-
• Kilkari Rainbow Home provides shelter and comfort to a vast and shifting population
of girls rescued by the police and/or CWC.
• The Rainbow Home program secures the basic rights of the girl child through
guaranteed education, nutrition, clothing, health care, recreation, love and support
to ensure their reintegration into mainstream Indian society.
• The girls are enrolled in regular school programs and age appropriate classes, usually
after a short period of remedial teaching as well as by a wide volunteer base and
buddy programs with children/students in more privileged schools.
Child Rights and You
PROGRAM APPROACH

Identify the Partner with Mobilise Local Create Get Public

Enable CHANGE
problem Grassroots NGOs Communities Awareness Support

Program Areas- Child Labour, Child trafficking, Education, child marriage etc.