The state’s foster care system — designed to provide family-based care instead of institutionalisation — is also functioning without proper oversight.
Published Oct 16, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 16, 2025 | 8:00 AM
A school in Kerala. (iStock)
Synopsis: Hundreds of childcare institutions are operating in Kerala without valid registration, and crucial rehabilitation reports are delayed for over a year. The delays largely occurred at the District Child Protection Units, which failed to forward renewal applications to District Magistrates in time, thereby stalling inspections and renewals.
A four-and-a-half-year-old was sent to foster care without a proper assessment. A 12-year-old differently-abled girl was housed in an institution unequipped to care for her, only to die from neglect. Hundreds of childcare institutions are operating in Kerala without valid registration, and crucial rehabilitation reports are delayed for over a year.
Behind Kerala’s reputation for progressive social welfare lies a child protection system quietly cracking under its own weight — where vulnerable children often fall through the gaps meant to safeguard them.
A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the Kerala Assembly on 9 October laid bare these cracks, revealing serious lapses in the implementation of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and related mechanisms under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The audit, covering 2018–19 to 2022–23 in five districts — Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Wayanad and Kannur — paints a disturbing picture of neglect, delay, and lack of accountability in protecting children in conflict with the law and those in need of care and protection.
The state is yet to frame its own rules to implement the Juvenile Justice Act, even a decade and a half after the ICPS was introduced.
The state continues to depend on the Model Amendment Rules, 2022, formulated by the Union government.
According to the CAG, this absence of state-specific rules has led to administrative ambiguity in several critical areas, from institutional monitoring to rehabilitation pathways.
The government admitted in April 2024 that redrafting of the rules was still “in progress” — a delay that has had cascading effects.
In multiple instances, the audit noted situations demanding urgent state-level interventions through norms and regulations, which remained unaddressed.
Perhaps the most glaring revelation is the state’s failure to ensure that Child Care Institutions (CCIs) operate legally. Of the 214 CCIs functioning in the five districts during 2022–23, 165 were due for renewal before March 2023.
However, only three institutions in Kannur had their registration renewed on time. The audit found that 149 CCIs were functioning without valid registration as of October 2023, and 12 had not even applied for renewal.
The delays largely occurred at the District Child Protection Units (DCPUs), which failed to forward renewal applications to District Magistrates in time, thereby stalling inspections and renewals.
While the government claimed that issuing a “temporary receipt” could be treated as provisional registration, the CAG firmly rejected this interpretation, calling it legally untenable.
According to a senior officer with a District Child Protection Unit, “When childcare institutions operate without valid registration, it essentially means the government has no updated oversight on the quality of care provided to children. This is a serious compliance issue and puts both the children and the state at risk.”
The Mission Vatsalya guidelines (July 2022) mandate periodic grading of CCIs based on infrastructure, quality of care, health, education, and rehabilitation outcomes, in consultation with the National Institute of Public Co-operation and Child Development (NIPCCD).
The CAG found that the Kerala government has not graded a single institution to date. Although the state cited an ongoing social audit with UNICEF, the CAG noted that this exercise is not a substitute for grading.
The absence of grading means institutions operate without structured evaluation of their standards — leaving the system with little accountability.
Commenting on this finding, the senior officer said, “Grading of institutions is a tool to hold them accountable for the quality of care. Without grading, we are operating in the dark. Institutions with serious deficiencies continue to function as if nothing is wrong.”
The Social Investigation Report (SIR) — a critical tool that shapes decisions about a child’s custody and rehabilitation — must be prepared within 15 days of production before the Juvenile Justice Board or Child Welfare Committee.
The audit found delays ranging from 364 to 447 days in the submission of SIRs across the five districts.
In one harrowing case in Ernakulam, the absence of an SIR may have had fatal consequences. A child placed in foster care at 4½ years was later returned to institutional care without the preparation of an SIR.
The child eventually died by suicide in July 2020 — a tragedy the audit notes might have been prevented had timely psychosocial assessments and counselling been undertaken.
Individual Care Plans (ICP) — mandated under Juvenile Justice Rules — are supposed to be living documents addressing a child’s health, education, emotional well-being, and rehabilitation.
Yet, the audit found that none of the 17 CCIs examined updated ICPs as required. The DCPUs attributed the lapse to staff shortages and lack of awareness.
The state has now promised inspections and additional training for counsellors, but the damage reflects a long-standing neglect of a core rehabilitative tool.
The audit paints a stark picture of children with disabilities and special needs. Institutions often lacked specialised staff, educational support, or adaptive equipment like wheelchairs or braille kits.
In Ernakulam, a 12-year-old girl who was mentally and physically challenged and a survivor of sexual abuse was placed in a home not authorised to house girls, due to the absence of a specialised facility.
The institution struggled to care for her. She died in January 2021 of pneumonia after prolonged neglect.
The CAG notes that the state has no exclusive homes for children with mental illness or addiction, forcing their accommodation alongside other children.
The state’s foster care system — designed to provide family-based care instead of institutionalisation — is functioning without proper oversight.
Outreach workers, who are required to visit foster families weekly for the first month and monthly thereafter, did not conduct a single such visit in the audited districts.
Child Welfare Committees also failed to conduct the mandated monthly inspections of foster homes. Moreover, DCPUs did not maintain records in Form 34, which tracks a child’s adjustment and safety in foster care.
A counsellor attached to a child care institution said, “Foster care cannot be a ‘set and forget’ system. Weekly and monthly visits are mandatory for a reason. If they are not happening, then children are essentially left invisible to the system once placed.”
The CAG also flagged other serious gaps:
The audit findings reveal not merely administrative lapses but structural failures in Kerala’s child protection architecture. At its core, the ICPS aims to protect children in conflict with the law and those in need of care and protection — a goal that hinges on institutional readiness, timely interventions, and child-sensitive approaches.
Kerala has, over the years, been considered relatively progressive in child welfare indices. But the CAG’s findings pierce that image, exposing an under-resourced, under-regulated and under-monitored system.
Without state-specific rules, institutional grading, timely SIRs, and specialised facilities, the promise of rehabilitation and protection remains, for many children, an unkept one.
As the report underscores, systemic reform — not piecemeal correction — is the need of the hour. The question is whether the state will act with the urgency that its children deserve.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
