Centre issued model guidelines on foster care in 2016, Foster Care, Foster Care Homes, Foster Care Rules notified in 2014 under the state Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2000 and the JJ Rules, 2011, Indian Express Sunday Special
When she joined the family, Lilliput was a quiet child, guarded, even a bit stubborn, often picking up fights with the domestic help, and scared of the family dog Scooby. (Express Photo by Mahim Pratap Singh)
It’s a relaxed Saturday morning for nine-year-old Lilliput. It’s an off day at school, the usually harsh Rajasthan sun is calm behind an overcast sky, and the grey Aravalis that surround her home are a lush green from the first monsoon showers. “Cycle chalana sabse achcha lagta hai (I love cycling the most),” she says, pedalling down the street outside her foster home at Chitrakoot Nagar on the outskirts of Udaipur, the city of lakes.
“Uff, iski chain nikal gayi (the cycle chain has come off),” she says softly, her smile now turned upside down, much like the sad emoji, as she drags the small bike with support wheels inside the house. Lilliput, as her new family calls her affectionately, is one of the first children to be taken into foster care after the Centre issued model guidelines on foster care in 2016.
In 2008, the police had found her in Chittorgarh. An unclaimed child born to a victim of sexual assault, she was barely a month old then. She spent nine years in a care home, before being recently brought in by a 52-year-old Air-India duty manager and her 11-year-old daughter, into their home.