Mission Vatsalya: JJ Act implementation support, child care institutions, portals for missing children, and emergency services

What happened: Mission Vatsalya strengthening for JJ Act implementation and missing-children response

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal ministry for administering the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act, 2015). Under Mission Vatsalya, the Ministry supports services for children in difficult circumstances across all States and Union Territories (with predefined cost sharing). The Ministry also announced a unified Mission Vatsalya Portal that integrates missing-children reporting and tracing modules, and standard operating procedures for portal and system integrations.

Mission Vatsalya: institutional and non-institutional child care

Mission Vatsalya provides two categories of support for children in difficult circumstances: institutional care and non-institutional care. Institutional care through Child Care Institutions (CCIs) includes: age-appropriate education access to vocational training recreation health care counselling Non-institutional care is provided through: sponsorship foster care adoption after care

Emergency outreach: Child Helpline 1098 and ERSS-112 integration

Mission Vatsalya supports emergency outreach services through Child Helpline 1098 operating 24x7x365 for children in difficult circumstances. The helpline is integrated with the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112) helpline of the Ministry of Home Affairs, linking child emergency response with the broader emergency response framework.