Programmes and institutions for children

ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) is the world's largest early childhood programme. At the anganwadi, it meets the health, nutrition, stimulation and early learning needs of children under six:

• pre-school education for children aged 3-6;
• supplementary feeding, also for pregnant and nursing mothers;
• growth monitoring;
• immunisation and vitamin A.

SOS Children's Villages (an NGO; the first in India was set up in 1964) give orphaned and abandoned children long-term, family-based care. A 'mother' looks after a group of children in a home; several homes form a village that is part of the local community. SOS also gave relief after disasters such as Bhopal (1984), cyclones, earthquakes and the tsunami.

Government children's homes (for ages 3-18), often run with NGOs:

• Observation homes: temporary stay while the child's family is traced.
• Special homes: custodial care for juveniles found guilty.
• Juvenile or children's homes: for children whose families cannot be traced or will not take them back. They give room, food, education and vocational training.

Adoption was once done only within families; now it is a legal process, run through NGOs. CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority), set up on the Supreme Court's advice, makes guidelines to safeguard children. Feed, care, house, and if needed, find a family.