On 26th April, 2024, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India issued the Model Guidelines for Foster Care, 2024, revised in light of the 2021 amendment to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the 2022 amendment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules. The 2024 Foster Care Guidelines has introduced several new provisions in alignment with the amended JJ Act, JJ Model Rules, and Adoption Regulations, 2022, and have simplified many other provisions which were existing in the 2016 Foster Care Guidelines. This document concentrates on key provisions of the 2024 Foster Care Guidelines and compares it with the 2016 version. For ease of reference, paragraph number of the respective Guidelines where particular provisions can be found has been highlighted, since only a shortened version is included in this document.
Author – Satyajeet Mazumdar, Niyati Trivedi – Catalysts for Social Action