Children
Children — POCSO, ICDS, Mid-Day Meal (PM POSHAN), juvenile justice
12 min read · Updated 2026-05-25
What is the Integrated Child Development Services?
The Integrated Child Development Services, launched in 1975, is India's largest child welfare programme, delivering supplementary nutrition, pre-school education, immunisation and health check-ups through 13.94 lakh Anganwadi centres. Child protection rests on POCSO 2012, which is gender-neutral and covers anyone below 18, the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, which allows 16-to-18-year-olds to be tried as adults for heinous offences, and PM POSHAN.
The story
It is 17 December 2012 — the day after the Nirbhaya gang-rape. In a Delhi shelter home, a 7-year-old girl is being processed by police under IPC Sec 354. She had been sexually assaulted by a neighbour the same week. The case will languish for 6 years before a verdict, by which time she will be 13.
That same week, six months after Parliament passes the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO) on 14 November 2012 (her birthday — Children's Day, no less), the country has the first dedicated child-victim sexual offence law in its 65-year republican history. It is gender- neutral, child-centric, time-bound (1 year for trial), and creates a presumption of guilt for the accused under Section 29.
A decade later, the Children + Adolescents framework has become India's most active legislative + welfare cluster. 14.4 lakh AWCs, 11.8 crore mid-day-meal beneficiaries, 1.43 lakh juveniles in conflict with law tracked under JJ Act 2015, 2.65 lakh POCSO cases registered (NCRB 2022 — 6% of all crimes against women + children), and NEP 2020 mandating universal ECCE for 3-6 year olds.
India hosts ~44 crore children (0-18 years, ~31% of population) — the largest child population in the world. The framework that protects them was largely built in the last 15 years.
Why this matters for UPSC
GS-II syllabus explicitly mentions "issues relating to women + children" + "welfare schemes for vulnerable sections by Centre
- States". Children = ~31% of population; investment in them shapes 2050 India.
Mains PYQs: 2014 (child malnutrition + ICDS), 2017 (juvenile justice 2015 reform), 2020 (POCSO + child sexual abuse), 2022 (school nutrition + PM POSHAN), 2024 (NEP 2020 + ECCE).