This session, during Dasra Philanthrophy Week, brings together thought leaders, policymakers, funders, and civil society actors to reflect on where children are being missed, why risks go unidentified, and how systems can be strengthened. Drawing from policy, practice, and lived realities, the conversation will explore how early identification and cross-sector coordination can enable stronger and more timely child protection responses.

This article notes how a pan-India study revealed that thousands of children of incarcerated parents (CoIP) are left invisible and vulnerable within India’s criminal justice system despite Supreme Court mandates intended to protect their rights and well-being.

In this webinar, speakers shared the principles, practices, and innovative initiatives in family strengthening across the East and North-Eastern regions of India. Speakers reflected on evolving family vulnerabilities, the role of family-based care in care reform, and what it truly takes to embed family-strengthening principles into everyday practice.

This study examined differences in emotional and behavioural problems among 400 adolescent orphans in Kerala, India using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to assess how sociodemographic factors shape mental health outcomes. The findings revealed significant variations by gender, religion, type of orphanhood, length and type of institutional care, underscoring the need for tailored psychosocial interventions that reflect these differences.

This chapter, in the book Children and Family Social Work, reviews the reform of children’s care systems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, tracing the historical reliance on large-scale residential institutions under communism and the subsequent shift toward community-based alternatives after the Soviet Union’s collapse. While institutionalization has significantly declined and community services have expanded, challenges remain in funding, workforce development, and preventing family separation while protecting children from harm.

This UNICEF article examines how violent discipline, both physical and psychological, remains widespread across Europe and Central Asia, often occurring in homes or care settings behind closed doors despite legal bans and policy commitments in man

The article highlights a deeply troubling crisis facing street-connected children in Pakistan, who remain largely invisible to authorities and are subject to widespread sexual exploitation and abuse, exacerbated by poverty, lack of safe shelter, l

In this article, Hasht-e Subh reports that the Taliban has abruptly closed private orphanages across Afghanistan, seized their assets, and transferred thousands of vulnerable children into state-run facilities under Taliban control—raising deep co

In Myanmar, concerns have been raised that clientelism may be facilitating the recruitment of children into unregistered facilities, putting children at risk. This study uses clientelism theory and examines relationships between stakeholders involved in forty-five residential care facilities in Myanmar. It finds clientelism as a distinct driver of child institutionalization in Myanmar and as a mechanism that facilitates the recruitment and admission of children into unregulated residential care facilities, undermining their rights and safety.

This scoping review examines evidence from Asia and culturally comparable contexts to understand the experiences and support needs of young people transitioning from out-of-home care, with a particular focus on Indonesia. The findings highlight widespread gaps in formal leaving-care and aftercare support, alongside promising practices, the importance of informal networks and independent living skills, and the influence of stigma, gender, and resilience on care leavers’ transitions to adulthood.