The Central Government is executing Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) to implement the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), in which State Governments/UT Administrations have major role to play. The Ministry has been requesting the State Governments/UT Administrations from time to time to identify and register all Child Care Institutions (CCIs) including Observation Homes, Special Homes and Observation cum Special Homes under relevant provisions of JJ Act and set up functional inspection and other Committees to ensure that children in all the CCIs receive the best of care, and are not subject to any kind of abuse and neglect. The State Governments/UT Administrations are also required to ensure, through regular inspection and monitoring, that the institutions are run as per the provisions of the JJ Act and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rule, 2016 framed there-under.

The financial norms under ICPS were revised with effect from 1st April, 2014. Some of the key features of the revised Scheme are, increased maintenance grant for children in homes, from existing Rs. 750 to Rs. 2000 per child per month; enhanced cost of construction from existing provision of Rs. 600 per sq. feet to Rs. 1000 per sq. feet and flexibility in the staffing pattern in service delivery structures, depending on the size and need of the State/UT.

The details of number of Observation homes, Special homes presently functioning in the country for children in conflict with law and being funded under Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is given below:

The details of fund released and utilized for infrastructure development and modernization of CCIs includingObservation Homes and Special Homes, during each of the last three years and the current year under ICPS is given below:

                                                                                                            Rs. in Lakhs   

The Government has received various proposals for construction of Observation Homes and Special Homes. The details of funds provided by the Government to the States/UTs for construction of Observation Homes and Special Homes during the last three years, under ICPS is given below:

Under Section 41 of the JJ Act, registration of institutions including Homes for children in conflict with law has been made mandatory with penalty in case of non-compliance. Section 53 of the Act provides for several rehabilitation and re-integration services in institutions such as education, vocational training, mental health interventions, counseling, etc. Under Section 8 of the Act, the Juvenile Justice Board is required to conduct at least one inspection visit every month of residential facilities for children in conflict with law and recommend action for improvement in quality of services to the District Child Protection Unit and the State Government. Under Section 54, the State Governments are required to appoint inspection Committees for the State and district for mandatory inspection of all facilities housing children, at least once in three months.

This information was given by Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Smt Krishna Raj in reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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NB/UD

                                                                                                                                                                                               Annexure-III

Annexure referred to in reply to part (c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4295 for 11.08.2017 raised by Shrimati Bhavana Pundalikrao Gawali Patil, Dr. Ravindra Babu, Shrimati Rekha Verma regarding “Observation and Special Homes for Juveniles”

Details of fund provided for Construction of Observation & Special Homes under ICPS

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