PANJIM: The Directorate of Women and Child (DWC) Foster Care Scheme will come to the attention of the nation after the department director on Thursday announced she would be presenting the novel scheme at a seminar in Delhi next month.
The Foster Care Scheme also referred to as the Vatsalya is a family-based non institutional child care programme providing temporary care for children in difficult circumstances including those whose parents are unable to care for them due to illness, death, desertion of one parent or any emotional crisis.
Speaking at a State-level workshop on Strategies and Regulation of Child Labour, Deepali Naik, Director, DWC said, “This scheme has not been popularized but it is certainly something that will be beneficial to the welfare of the child,” she said.
She said that children who were in conflict with the law, who after being placed in Apna Ghar, were sent back to their homes or to foster homes, and families were given a stipend of Rs 2,500 to help the child.
A child care coordinator assesses the situation creating a case study and ultimately reporting the situation to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for further intervention. “It is a unique scheme to Goa and there is a need to show the rest of the country its benefits. Which is why, on July 2, I will be representing Goa in Delhi where I will be giving a presentation on the scheme so that it can be a model for other states to follow,” said Naik.
As per the scheme, on the basis of an assessment of the child care coordinator the maximum maintenance allowance per child of monthly foster care allowances payable to the foster family for the welfare of the child will be Rs 2,500.
