New Delhi: The Government of India has released more than Rs 63.88 crore to Odisha during last and current financial years under the Mission Vatsalya scheme, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani told Rajya Sabha today.
While replying to questions asked by BJD MPs Niranjan Bishi and Sulata Deo, the Union Minister said the Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing Mission Vatsalya Scheme through States/UTs for care, protection, rehabilitation and reintegration of children in difficult circumstances on predefined cost sharing basis between the Central and the State/UT Governments.
Under the scheme, funds are released to the States/UTs directly including for District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) in Odisha. Funds are released to the States/UTs including Odisha on compliance, as per Single Nodal Agency (SNA) guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance, which are monitored at various levels through SNA reports on Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Portal, she said.
When the MPs asked whether there is delay in release of fund to Odisha under the Mission Vatsalya, Irani said “There has been no delay in release of funds by the Government of India.”
An amount of Rs 3755.49 lakhs was released to the State Government during the last financial year (2022-23) while Rs 2633.21 lakhs released during the current financial year (as on 11.12.2023), she informed.
The Union Minister further informed that there are one State Child Protection Society (SCPS), one State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA), 30 DCPUs, 31 Child Welfare Committee (CWC), 34 Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), 140 Child Care Institutions (CCIs), 4153 children supported under Institutional Care and 1772 Non-Institutional Cares under Mission Vatsalya Scheme in the State of Odisha.
As per section 106 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2021), every State Government has to constitute a DCPU for every district to take up matters relating to children to ensure the implementation of JJ Act, 2015 and rules thereunder.
The DCPUs function under the overall supervision of District Magistrate in ensuring service delivery and care and protection of children in the district.
As per Mission Vatsalya Scheme Guidelines, the human resources available in DCPU include District Child Protection Officer, Protection Officers (Institutional Care), Protection Officer- (Non-Institutional Care), Legal-cum Probation Officer (LCPO), Counsellor, Social Workers, Accountant, Data Analyst, Assistant-Cum-Data Entry Operator and Outreach Workers to perform the functions as given under Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Rules as amended from time to time and Mission Vatsalya Scheme, she said in a written statement.