The National Policy for Youth, 2014 recognizes the need for government policies to be inclusive and to ensure that the youth population in the country do not suffer from stigma or discrimination. The NPC mentioned about prioritizing interventions for youth-at-risk providing “support and create equitable opportunity for all disadvantaged and marginalised youth” with priority areas including education, health, sports, promotion of social values, participation in politics and governance, Employment, Skill development and many more.10 The National Skill Development Policy, 2015 envisioned to create an ecosystem of empowerment by skilling on a large Scale at Speed with high Standards and to promote a culture of innovation based entrepreneurship, which can generate wealth and employment to ensure Sustainable livelihoods. The core objective of the Policy is to empower the individual, by enabling her/ him to realize their full potential through a process of lifelong learning, where competencies are accumulated via instruments such as credible certifications, credit accumulation and transfer, etc. The policy recognizes the vulnerabilities of young people and focus on an outcome-based approach towards quality skilling by providing seamless integration of skill training with formal education. Despite state and national government commitment to better support young people leaving care, the After Care program, which is the key pillar in the delivery of rehabilitative services for adolescents and young adults out of home care, is a neglected and largely unaddressed program in India from the part of Government. Legislation recognizes the need for After Care services for institutionalized children to help them “to lead an honest, industrious and useful life”. The existing legal framework also recognizes that the transition period is an additional three years of support and services to young people reaching the age of majority.
JJ Act and rules The legal foundation of the Child Protection mandate in India is the Juvenile Justice Act which first came
into force in 1986. The combination of a growing focus on the issue of juvenile justice as well as the pressure faced by the government to submit a Country Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child outlining concrete achievements, apparently inspired the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment to draft a new law, the final outcome of which was the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 that made the age limit of 18 years uniform for both boys and girls in consonance with the CRC and sought to facilitate speedy disposal of disputes. This Act was seen to be weak on care jurisdiction and inadequate in after care and follow-up of the children in difficult circumstances, hence amended in 2006 as Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2006 bringing under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD). The Act has got amended once again as Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2015 with some notable changes in clauses. The JJ Act, 2015, which came into force on 1st January 2016, clearly articulates the objective of Aftercare as being a service ‘to facilitate child’s re-integration into the mainstream of the society’ (JJ Act, 2015, Section 46). Aftercare is defined under Section 2(5), JJ Act, 2015, as “making provision of support, financial or otherwise, to persons, who have completed the age of eighteen years but have not completed the age of twenty-one years, and have left any institutional care to join the mainstream of the society”. Section 46 states that any child leaving a CCI on completion of eighteen years may be provided with financial support in order to facilitate child’s re-integration into the mainstream of the society in the manner as may be prescribed. The State Governments, by rules made under the Juvenile Justice Act, provide for i) the establishment or recognition of After Care organizations and its functions, ii) a scheme of After Care programme for the purpose of taking care of juveniles or the children after they leave special homes, children homes, on reaching 18 and for the purpose of enabling them to lead an honest, industrious and useful life.
10 National Youth Policy, 2014, pg no- 23
Different Shared Living Arrangements for Care Leavers
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