Fostering is an arrangement whereby a child lives, usually on a temporary basis, with an extended or unrelated family member. Such an arrangement ensures that the birth parents do not lose any of their parental rights or responsibilities. The aim is to eventually re-unite the child with his/her own family when the family circumstances improve, and thus prevent institutionalization of children in difficult circumstances.

District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) under the Department of Woman and Child Development is the nodal office of Foster Care programme. District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) provides the legal assistance.

Types of Foster Care

Individual Foster Care: A comprehensive development plan for a child, based on age specific and gender specific needs and the case history of the child, prepared in consultation with the child, in order to restore the child’s self-esteem, dignity and self-worth and nurture him/her into a responsible citizen.

Group Foster Care: Placement of a child in an intimate or homelike setting in which upto eight related or unrelated children live for a varying period of time with a single set of house parents or with a rotating staff of trained care givers.

Kinship Foster Care: Children given for foster care to the members of the extended family of the Child.

Vacation Foster Care: As part of the project, children who are not legally orphaned, i.e., at least one of their parents is still alive, and those who are unable to visit their families during the vacation are handed over for foster care to interested families during the two-month summer vacation.

Respite Foster Care: As part of this project, child/children will be fostered on a short-term basis