Fostering a sense of familial bonding

DCPU organises unique family meet to promote short-term and long-term foster care programme

Lonely no more: A child plays in the garden while his foster parents attend a meeting organised by the District Child Protection Unit at the Government Youth Hostel at Kakkanad in Kochi on Saturday.

A family with three girls looking for a foster brother for their daughters and and a childless couple beyond the legally permissible age of adoption looking for an infant to pamper during their retired lives are among the requests reaching the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), making all-out efforts to promote foster care programme.

After successfully conducting a vacation foster care programme, under which 17 children of different age groups were sent to families last summer vacation, the DCPU with the support of the CWC is trying to improve upon it by encouraging both short-term and long-term foster care.

A unique family meet of foster children and their parents organised by the DCPU at the Government Youth Hostel at Kakkanad here on Saturday was aimed at highlighting the positive effects of foster care programme on the children and parents.

Session on parenting

Seventeen out of the 30 families from across the State who benefited from the foster care programme of the DCPU turned up for the half-day-long meet. While the parents attended a session on good parenting, the children were busy playing outside.

“In our assessment, the foster care programme has an overall good impact on both parents and the children except for adolescent issues inevitable during teenage. The CWC permits foster care for short terms with periodic renewals and follow-ups with parents having the option to secure permanent guardianship through the district court after five years,” CWC Chairperson Padmaja Nair told

The Hindu on the sidelines of the event.

Mostly, children whose biological parents are no longer alive are considered for the foster care programme to avoid emotional distress to all parties concerned.

But, in rare cases where children with parents are given for foster care, the foster parents have to arrange for occasional meetings between children and their biological parents on the CWC premises.

Adopting and foster care

Besides childless couples, the foster care programme is now open to single parents and parents with children who seem to prefer foster care over adoption since it ultimately ends up in permanent guardianship akin to adoption after five years.

“Besides, we follow up the situation of foster children for five years unlike in adoption where the adoption agency concerned monitors the situation for just two years.

“We also arrange for counselling sessions for parents and children whenever needed,” said District Child Protection Officer K.Z. Zaina.

Though children up to the age of 18 and not legally free for adoption are eligible for foster care, teenaged children are given to foster homes only if there is an age difference of 20 years between the child and the parent.