We know a great deal now about what institutional care does to children. Deprived of a family environment, children receive less stimulation, individual attention and love. Their lives are often lived in a parallel world that does not prepare them for life and for healthy social interaction. Their voices are not heard. In the worst scenarios, children lose contact with their families, suffer physical and psychological abuse, are denied access to appropriate medical care, education and other services, and may become the victims of sexual exploitation or trafficking. In short, we know that institutional care, unless used only when there is absolutely no other alternative and carefully regulated, violates the very principles of the CRC as well as many of its articles.
We are also coming to realize what institutional care does to societies. It perpetuates discrimination, by providing tacit approval for the idea that certain groups of children, whether orphaned, abandoned, living with disabilities, from families affected by AIDS or by poverty, should live apart from society. It absorbs resources…institutions are always an expensive proposition. Allocated differently, these resources could provide the services needed to help families keep their children with them, and thus build communities. It creates an underclass; young people and adults who lack the experience and skills to function effectively in the wider world, and become a charge on their communities. In short, in addition to being an obstacle to the individual child’s healthy development, the use of institutional care also impedes the healthy development of communities and society as a whole.
©UNICEF