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Stream/Area:
-
Subject:
-
Paper ID:
IJSREM68327
Volume:
10 |
10 |
Oct 2026
Pages:
1-9
Publication Frequency:
Monthly (12 issues per year)
License:International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management follows the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, allowing free use and distribution with proper attribution.
, School of Commerce and Management
,Sanjivani University
School of Commerce and Management
Sanjivani University
Department of Management
Dr. Moonje Institute of Management and Computer Studies
School of Commerce and Management
Sanjivani University
Purpose: The paper explores lived experiences, institutional provisions, and developmental vulnerabilities of children in rural Child Care Institutions (CCI) in India. Based on a conceptual triad of Emotional Security, Health and Well-being, Education and Skills, and Independent Adulthood, the study examines the role of institutional processes in mediating or limiting child developmental pathways in statutory child-protection paradigms. Design/methodology/approach: The research design is an inductive, single-site descriptive case study design with a total census cohort (N=20) in a rural sub-district of Maharashtra, India. Triangulation of empirical data was done through administrative artifact audits (custody orders, school logs, and health registries), non-participant naturalistic observations, and semi-structured in-depth interviews with resident children (n=10, ages 10-17) and staff involved in caregiving (n=4). Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative materials using a six-phase framework of Braun and Clarke. Findings: Contrary to the belief that institutionalized youth are double-orphans, 100% of the cohort have living biological relatives, 65.0% of them live in single-parent or grandparent-headed families, and 100% of them come back to their homes on school breaks. Educational poverty has been the most common factor resulting in institutional entry (80.0% as opposed to familial abandonment). Although CCIs can offer basic physical security and school enrollment, there are still critical deficits in the triad: high caregiver-to-child ratios lead to emotional depersonalization; living conditions are characterized by nutritional and WASH shortages; and passive schooling is not enough to enter adult life as a digital native and proficient in the English language. Practical implications: The research findings can be applied as practical interventions at statutory nodes: increasing direct-to-family educational sponsorships under Mission Vatsalya to avoid unwarranted separation; institutionalizing certified trauma-informed caregiving (TIC) to reduce burnout among caregivers; making mandatory Primary Health Centre (PHC) pediatric audits; and organizing after-care interventions with mentorship and health insurance (PM-JAY) to avoid post-18 transition shocks. Social implications: By framing institutionalization as an informal poverty-reduction strategy of marginalized rural kin networks, this study shifts policy priorities away from institutional expansion of custodial agencies in favour of family preservation, deinstitutionalization, and capability-based child welfare. Originality/value: The article provides an empirically supported multi-stage structural research framework operationalizing Capability Approach, Attachment Theory, and Bioecological Systems Theory developed by Bowlby and Bronfenbrenner, respectively, to assess alternative residential care in the under-researched rural Indian environments.
KEYWORDS
In India, the situation with child institutional care is at a crossroads. Although national policies such as the Mission Vatsalya and the Juvenile Justice Act have taken some admirable steps with regard to ensuring that family-based care and institutional standards are given priority, ground realities in rural CCIs show that there are major differences between the statutory aims and lived realities. Institutionalized children show a profound need for emotional attachment, clean surroundings, healthy food, and 21st-century learning facilities. It is necessary to meet these interdependent needs with the integrated triad framework of creating emotional security to unlock health and health to empower educational transformation in order to make institutional care not only a survival shelter, but a stepping stone to a strong, dignified independent adulthood. Although the present work offers substantial micro-level empirical data on the institutional dynamics of rural life, the following methodological constraints should be considered: first, the single-location study with a localized cohort (N=20) in Maharashtra hampers the generalizability of the study to the broader scope of the state-level care models; second, the cross-sectional design captures only a time snapshot of the present population, which is why longitudinal investigations comparing non-institutional sponsorship beneficiaries in the state of Maharashtra with residential cohorts using cognitive, psychological and academic developmental indicators are critically needed; third, despite the qualitative depth of the study, subtle social desirability biases or unwillingness to criticize the current state of affairs may exist; and lastly, further research should consider multi-state comparative studies in contrasting non-institutional sponsorship beneficiaries in the state of Maharashtra with residential cohort data across cognitive, psychological, and academic developmental indices.
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Publication Date
10/26/2026
Peer Review Type
Double-Blind Peer Review
Review Rounds: 2
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