The networks of institutional mechanisms that were established under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) facilitate child protection in India. These institutions include Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) and other related structures that maintain the rights and welfare of children. The paper is a systematic literature review, as it follows the PRISMA framework to examine works published between 2010 and 2025 and investigate the roles, challenges, and best practices of these institutional mechanisms. Relevant literature has been identified using Google Scholar, Scopus, and official government and NGO reports.
The review presents three main findings: (1) institution plays a central role in case management, rehabilitation, and inter-agency coordination; (2) a lack of enough resources, training, and weak monitoring systems are recurrent challenges; and (3) promising results are obtained by innovative practices, including community-based protection, rights-based models. The paper concludes that though India has developed an elaborate child protection system, its effectiveness is dependent on capacity building, better coordination and increased involvement of social work professionals. The review is highly informative to policy makers, practitioners and researchers who want to enhance the institutional child protection systems in India.
