Advocacy

About the Programme

The advocacy programme at Udayan Care gives a powerful voice to children, youth and weaker sections of society, ensuring that their wishes and views are acted upon by the legal system. We speak up for them, campaign for their cause, safeguard their interests and represent their wishes and views in front of decision-makers.

At Udayan Care, we not only acts as a service provider but also as an active advocate, working with government and other non-governmental agencies, promoting policy reform measures and standards of care in Alternative care.

Our advocacy work is focused on ensuring and enhancing the rights of children in alternative care. We campaign to ensure that all out-of-home care children are safe and protected. We believe that it is crucial to uphold their right to equality, survival, quality education, nutrition, health, opportunities and earning a livelihood.

The organization is actively creating awareness by holding regular conferences, consultations, seminars and workshops. We also put forth resources, research papers and publications, making them readily available for future reference. Our advocacy programme is involved with a number of ongoing, completed and forthcoming material such as ICEB, posters, booklets, FAQs, fact sheets, working papers, points of view and strategy documents. We also conduct trainings and seminars to shed light on matters of concern.

Together, we can bring about compelling changes that keep children in the centre of affairs, keeping in mind their best interest always.

Programme Objective

Campaigning for the rights of children without parental care

A lot of our advocacy efforts are centered on ensuring and enhancing rights of children without parental care (CWPC). Our advocacy is concentrated on 31 million orphans and vulnerable children in India. These children are deeply impacted by the quality of ‘Alternative Care’ they receive. We work to ensure that all CWPC are cared for and protected, and that their rights are upheld and secured.

People-centric Advocacy

Udayan Care believes that advocacy is a tool that enables civil society members and organisations to take responsibility and improve the situation of vulnerable sections of society. Consistent efforts on this front have brought on board committed Mentor Parents, education professionals, volunteers, corporate fraternity, medical experts and schools, who enthusiastically give their time and skills.

Child Participation

We are convinced that the participation of children in decisions that impact their lives and accounting for their opinion and desires is important.

Impact of Advocacy Programme

Impact of Advocacy efforts so far

2005: Filed and won a Public Interest Litigation related to inclusion of ‘Guardian’ column in the application forms of Boards, along with ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ columns in Delhi High Court
2008: Advocated for child protection policies for adoption—first by drafting one for itself in 2008 and then developed a Delhi Declaration, which was signed by all those present in its seminar, for all civil society organisations to develop their CPP in 2009
We organized two Mental Health Workshops in which we advocated mental health as the right of the child, as adopted in the Juvenile Justice Act.
Initiated ‘Justice For Children: A Policy Thought Network’, a network of Child Rights activists and NGOs in 2012
March 2014: Initiated the 1st Biennial Conference on Alternative Care, focussed on South Asia
March 2014: Launched the academic, bi-annual journal, ‘Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond’
Several Trainings on Standards of Care and Mental Heath for staff in Governmental and non-governmental organizations
Sustained publication of 7 issues of academic, bi-annual journal on Alternative Care, ‘Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond’
9 academic research papers published in international journals on different aspects of alternative care

What makes us different

Issues that matter

We strategically choose the most pertinent issues in child and youth care, that require attention and deliberation. For example, in 2016, for the first time ever, we convened a stakeholders brainstorming meeting to develop a common understanding of trauma informed care approach while caring for children without parental care.

Research based approach

We continuously strive to research, investigate and gather evidence to gain insights into our own work on child and youth care, constantly evolving new methods to improve and upgrade our standards of care. For example, the QANCC effort was initiated to include the voice of children into our care plans, and after 6 years of longitudinal data, we have gained deep insights into subjective wellbeing of children in our group homes.

Recognition by the United Nations Committee on Child Rights Convention

We take pride in the fact that our uniqueness was recognized by the UN Committee on Child Rights Convention, (CRC) in 2012, in the following words: ‘A few attempts have been made by NGOs such as Udayan Care (a Delhi-based NGO) to promote group foster-care model, providing long-term residential care for orphaned and abandoned children above six years of age”.

Seminars, workshops and consultations

By using persuasive and consistent methods that deliver platforms for debates and dialogues on different aspects of Alternative Care for children, we influence policy and decision makers. We have held a number of Seminars, workshops and consultations.

For example, in 2009, we organized two Mental Health Workshops to advocate mental health as a right of the child, as adopted in the Juvenile Justice Act. In 2013, two symposia were conducted on Aftercare under the banner of the newly formed association, “Justice for Children: A Policy Thought Network”. In December 2016, we organised a 2 days consultation on Alternative Care in New Delhi, supported by UNICEF. In March 2017, a one day consultation was organised on ‘Trauma Informed Care for children living in Alternative Care’.

First, Second and Third BICONs

Udayan Care has been organizing various seminars on issues related to institutional care—particularly those related to mental health and aftercare programmes—since 2009. Apart from regional seminars and workshops, we have instituted the ‘Biennial Conferences on Alternative Care’, focused on South Asia. This initiative unites representatives from countries in southern Asia concerned with the domain of child rights, child protection and mental health, in order to focus on the issue of mental health, care and protection of children living in institutional care. Two such conferences have been held in 2014 and 2016, garnering huge success and appreciation. The third one is coming up soon!

IEC materials

We present information in the form of posters, booklets, FAQs, fact sheets, working papers, strategy documents etc. We recently publishes ‘A Series on Alternative Care’, comprising a set of 4 booklets on foster care, adoption, after care and standards of care in child care institutions.

Capacity Building and Trainings with stakeholders

Besides regular capacity building workshops and trainings for its own staff and mentors, Udayan Care has also been organizing workshops on several issues related to standards in alternative care for both governmental and non-governmental professionals. Our staff regularly attends consultations, seminars and trainings organised by governmental and non-governmental agencies that work in the domain.

Presentation of information at National and International Conferences

We have published a series of papers which cover issues of at-risk, out of family support network children, which were presented at different national and international fora. For example, ‘Trauma in Institutionalized Child Care and guidelines on how to deal with it’, which was presented at ASCAPAP, New Delhi, India, Sept 2013. Others include ‘Udayan Ghars (Sunshine Homes)’; ‘Udayan Care’s (Sunshine Homes) After Care Program: A Unique Model of Transition from Children’s Home to Independence’, presented in Melbourne, Australia; ‘A longitudinal Study in Progress on Assessing Needs of Children in Care (ANCC)’; poster on ‘Aftercare’ presented by Dr Kiran Modi in Geneva.

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Advocacy Programme

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Advocacy

About the Programme

Programme Objective

Impact of Advocacy Programme

What makes us different