Jamia varsity to set up foster care centre for orphaned kids

In a first of its kind in the country, Jamia Millia Islamia will set up a National Resource Centre on foster care to train workers who will in turn provide support and assistance for foster caring of orphaned and abandoned children.

The centre will work under the aegis of university’s Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research in collaboration with UK-based NGO Rainbow Fostering, which will provide technical know how and expertise.

The university and the UK-based centre had recently signed a MoU in this regard.

The announcement was made at the two-day international symposium on “Family Strengthening: Deconstructing Alternative

Practices in the Current Legislative Framework”, presided over by Jamia vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad.

Prof. Ahmad said that Jamia was the first Central university in the country to take such an initiative to provide support and assistance for foster caring of orphaned and abandoned children.

With India being home to nearly 20 million such children and the numbers expected to increase in future, the Jamia vicechancellor said that the country was confronted with an alarming humanitarian situation and it was time that steps were taken to address the problem at hand.

Prof. Ahmad said that the university will provide space and other infrastructure required to run the foster care centre.

The mandate of the newly set up centre is to train people in foster care by organising workshops, seminars and round tables.

The centre will also run a certificate course on the subject.

“Fostering a child is not the same as adopting a child. Fostering is a new concept in India and requires a lot of discussion and deliberation before it is formalised,” Stuti Kacker, chairperson, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights said.