SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has 60 registered Child Care Institutions (CCIs) funded under the Mission Vatsalya scheme during the financial year 2025-26, the Union Government informed Parliament on Friday, while asserting that a statutory inspection and monitoring mechanism is in place to ensure the safety, rehabilitation and welfare of children residing in such institutions.
In a written reply to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Savitri Thakur said the Ministry administers the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which provides the legal framework for the protection, care and rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection as well as children in conflict with law.
According to the reply, Jammu and Kashmir has 60 Mission Vatsalya-funded CCIs, while neighbouring Ladakh has nine. Across the country, Tamil Nadu has the highest number with 317 institutions, followed by West Bengal (208), Uttar Pradesh (191) and Odisha (184).
The Centre said inspections of Child Care Institutions are carried out under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the rules framed under it. State-level and district-level inspection committees are mandated to assess infrastructure, facilities and standards of care in the institutions.
The reply stated that District Level Inspection Committees, constituted by District Magistrates, inspect all CCIs in their respective districts and submit reports to the District Magistrate or the State Government for corrective action. District Magistrates are responsible for ensuring that deficiencies identified during inspections are addressed within a stipulated timeframe.
The Ministry said the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) are empowered to take decisions regarding children in need of care and protection and are also responsible for monitoring the functioning of Child Care Institutions. Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) deal with matters relating to children in conflict with law.
The Government further informed Parliament that Mission Vatsalya, a centrally sponsored scheme implemented through States and Union Territories, supports both institutional and non-institutional care, including foster care, sponsorship and aftercare services for children in difficult circumstances.
To strengthen monitoring, the Ministry has developed a unified Mission Vatsalya Portal, integrating the TrackChild and Khoya-Paya platforms for tracing missing and found children. The portal has also been integrated with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, enabling police to match FIRs of missing children with the national database to facilitate tracing and rehabilitation.
The Government said the Juvenile Justice Act also provides for mandatory reporting of offences relating to children and prescribes penalties for non-reporting, while advisories and standard operating procedures have been issued to States, Union Territories and law enforcement agencies to strengthen implementation of the child protection framework.
