Locations: MDC Home , Mankhurd

Sponsor: National Stock Exchange of India Ltd., Mumbai

Background of the project:

On August 24th 2010, Mumbai Mirror reported cases of deaths, severe malnutrition, unhygienic living conditions and physical and sexual abuse of mentally challenged orphaned children at an orphanage in Thane. This news report was taken as a suo moto PIL by the Bombay High Court. Project Chunauti was initiated by the Center for law and Society, School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance, to help the victim children recuperate from trauma of abuse and provide the children with a chance for a better life. The project includes 112 children in their current Home and will in-directly benefit 1100 children housed in MDC Homes across Maharashtra and approximately 70,000 children in institutional care across Maharashtra.

Objectives:

The overall objective of the project Chunauti is to ‘Strengthen systems for the care and rehabilitation of mentally challenged children, and to create a model of rehabilitation.

Activities to achieve the objectives:

• Assessment of the children’s immediate needs and Care Plan for each Child
• Developing linkages with various stakeholders for quality services for children for their development
• Providing education and physical and mental health interventions for children with special counseling, training in life skills, special education, SSA, NIOS, dance therapy, occupational therapy, training in gardening and mehendi
• Capacity building of staff