Integrated Child Protection Scheme

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) from 2009-10 for rehabilitation and reintegration of children in need of care and protection including, destitute children. The salient features of ICPS include financial support to States/UTs for -- setting up and maintenance of various types of Homes or Shelters run by States/UTs or by voluntary organisations; setting up of dedicated service delivery structures at Central, State and District level; Statutory Support Services in the districts like Juvenile Justice Board, Child Welfare Committees; Support for emergency outreach services for children in difficult circumstances; Support for family based non-institutional care through sponsorship, foster care, adoption and after care programme. The Ministry has issued several guidelines to the States Governments/UT Administrations for implementation of ICPS. The important guidelines are -- for submission of financial proposals by the States/UTs under ICPS; for sponsorship and aftercare of children under ICPS; and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for inter State/District transfer of children in need of Care and Protection. All the States/UTs have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry for implementation of the Scheme. ICPS provides for setting up of Committees at State, District, Block and Village levels for monitoring the implementation of the Scheme. Further, the implementation of ICPS in States/UTs is reviewed by the Ministry in the meetings of the inter-ministerial Project Approval Board (PAB) constituted under ICPS for considering and approving the proposals received from States/UTs under the Scheme. In addition, Regional Consultations are organised by the Ministry with various stake holders to review the progress of implementation and to promote cross learning of best practices under the Scheme. This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today. Courtesy: Press Information Bureau (pib.nic.in)