Eleventh Five Year Plan

218 Eleventh Five Year Planchild and adolescent mental health. Mental health ofchildren is an issue that the Eleventh Plan will fundand take up on priority basis. Counsellors will beappointed in all schools and helplines will be set upespecially during exams.Simplifying Adoption Procedures andPreventing Unscrupulous Practices6.154 Despite recognition of adoption as the mostimportant mechanism for provision of alternative careand family to a child, procedures and laws were, tillrecently, cumbersome and inadequate. Adoptions tookplace under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act(HAMA) 1956 and Guardians and Wards Act 1890.HAMA’s applicability is restricted to Hindus (includingBuddhists, Jains, and Sikhs). Since the enactmentof the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children)Act 2000 adoption, both domestic as well asinter-country, is now also possible under it and thisamendment allows everyone without any bias ofcaste, creed, religion, or gender to adopt. The EleventhPlan will promote adoption under the JJ Act 2000 thatensures adopted child the same status as that of a biologicalchild.Promoting Inter-Sectoral andInter-Ministerial Action6.155 In the Eleventh Plan every ministry/departmentwill review its own policies, programmes, services, laws,budgets, and procedures to examine how it can incorporateand integrate better development and protectionof children. Some of the general principles of sucha review will include monitoring exclusion/disparityin access by groups and communities, availability ofgender disaggregated child data, enforcement of lawand guidelines for protection and development of children,integration of children’ participation in policiesand programmes, and specific provision for the girlchild. Further, each sector will be advised to take upchild budget analysis and publish reports on theprogress of child indicators.6.156 In order to ensure adequate coordination andconvergence for achieving the goals for children,M/oWCD will ensure wider representation and invigoratedparticipation in the National CoordinatingGroup at the central level; establishment of similargroups at State level will be encouraged. The effectivefunctioning of this mechanism is most important forensuring better outcomes for children and safeguardingtheir rights.CHILD BUDGETING6.157 The MoWCD has been analysing allocations andexpenditures on children since 2002–03. In the EleventhPlan this exercise in child budgeting will be carriedout regularly to monitor the ‘outlays to outcome’and examine the adequacy of investments in relationto the situation of children in India.CONCLUSION6.158 The Eleventh Plan marks a big step forward inthe area of women agency and child rights. It is entrenchedin a rights framework that views women andchildren as agents, not recipients. It recognizes heterogeneitywithin groups, acknowledges multiple discriminations,and suggests pilots to tackle them. Some of thesepilots, it is hoped will develop into full-fledged schemesafter the mid-term appraisal of the Plan. The aim ofthese schemes, pilots and the Plan in general is not justto meet the monitorable targets set out; rather to developa new paradigm wherein women and childrenfind place within all sectors, ministries, departments,and schemes. This alone can ensure that the status ofwomen and children grows exponentially at the beginningof the Twelfth Plan. This alone can carry forwardthe momentum for justice and equality set by the governmentthrough several Eleventh Plan initiatives.6.159 The total projected GBS for the Eleventh FiveYear Plan for the MoWCD is Rs 48420 crore (at 2006–07 prices) and Rs 54765 crore (at current prices).Details are given in Appendix to Volume III.