The percentage of utilisation of funds available for Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in Odisha was continually decreasing from 70.47 per cent in 2016-17 to 31.60 per cent in 2020- 21, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s latest audit report.

Baseline surveys for identification of vulnerable children and their institutionalisation were not conducted by seven out of eight test checked districts. Further, only two per cent of the vulnerable children identified in the surveys were put in CCIs. However, the criteria used for selecting children for institutionalisation were not shared with Audit, it pointed out.

Inadequacies in physical infrastructures, dormitories, dining halls, kitchen, open space, etc., were noticed. Security measures in the CCIs, particularly, perimeter security walls were not proper. Escape of children from CCIs through broken perimeter wall was detected in the Audit.

Out of the 3,181 children (boys: 1,695 and girls: 1,486) in the CCIs of the eight test checked districts, only 48 children (1.51 per cent) were identified for foster care and of these, only 11 (23 per cent) were actually placed under such care.

Although the state level monitoring committee had been formed, the department had not developed state specific indicators against which the implementation of the ICPS scheme could be evaluated.

Further, no information was made available to audit on the number of review meetings conducted by the committee and on whether annual review Compliance Audit Report for the year ended March 2021 of the implementation of ICPS at the level of the Chief Secretary had been conducted during the period 2016-17 to 2020-21.

The Centre enacted the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (JJ Act), amended in 2006, which, inter alia, provides for constitution of Child Protection Units at both State and District levels.

A Centrally sponsored scheme – Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) – was introduced in 2009 which aimed at building a protective environment for children in difficult circumstances, as well as other vulnerable children, through Government-Civil Society Partnership, the report stated.