There are always aspirations of school-going children to be college students and become independent. So the schoolgoers wait for this day. However, there are a set of children who dread to step into their eighteenth year. Alas, they have no rosy dreams of adulthood, college or future life.

There are several children coming out of the government and private care homes who will have to leave the care homes once they turn eighteen. At eighteen, they become care leavers-without shelter, food, identity, and any income. Most of them have no fall-back option and they come back on the streets to brave a hard life without shelter, food, and any identity.

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Unicef India and the government are helping the children through vocational training and other possible means to become self-reliant. They are trying to provide training and other support to help them to earn and live a decent life. Strengthening the children by aligning them to state government’s run various schemes that help these care leavers to rebuild their life once again with dignity.

Speaking to The Statesman, Girish Mehta, who lost his father to AIDS and his mother is mentally unstable and living in a different home shared that he was reminded every day that he had to leave the home as he was about to turn eighteen. “This was not easy. Every other day I was told that I would have to leave the home. I have been staying in home since I was a child. I do not know the concept of family. And not only have any child staying in the care homes never heard the word father, mother, family, and family gathering. For us the home is everything. And there is no Sunday or Monday. Everything moves in a structured routine manner. So once we have been asked to leave the home it becomes an uphill task for us. There is no home, no job, no identity, and no fallback option. It is not about me. There are countless boys and girls every month asked to leave their foster homes because their eligibility ends once they become an adult. And it is a huge problem”.

Children cannot get a house on rent without an identity card. No one employs them when they notice that they are out of a childcare home. They have no aadhar card and it is difficult for them to prove their identity to the world. Also, not many would want to trust them.

Interestingly, before 2018, there was no data collected in this regard. However, now that the central and state governments have come up with many schemes that aim to handhold these care leavers for a couple of years they do not find it difficult to face the world in lack of any support. Mission Vatsalya, Smarath, and Hunar Vikas Yojna are some of the schemes that are helping these care leavers to chart out their paths further to live respectable life.

Working with Sanjay Kumar Nirala, Child Protection Specialist in Unicef Rajasthan shared that the government has been working on various aspects that will ensure that the care leavers become self-reliant. “The Hunar Vikas Yojna trains the children through various vocational training programmes. Smarath, is another government scheme that provides financial support to children to continue their studies or start a small business. There are children who have been trained in bakery and they are doing remarkably well in Jaipur. The government is paying attention to the problems that these children face and working towards the programs to ensure a hassle-free journey ahead for them”.

There are 112 children between the age of 18-21 utilised the benefits of Hunar Vikas Yojna. And under Smarath Yojna 64 children have so far opted to live a decent life.