Every year, an estimated 30,000 teenagers in India turn 18 inside childcare institutions and become, in the words of one sector worker, ‘nobody’s responsibility’ overnight.
Girish Mehta and Anisha Sharma know this reality intimately. Mehta had lived in a childcare institution in Jaipur since he was 12. When he turned 18, he had ‘barely a month to figure out my life.’ Sharma grew up in a Delhi home for children living with HIV and AIDS. When she aged out, she was, as she describes it, ‘mid-course, mid-dream, and on my own. I wasn’t mature enough to cope.’
India’s Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act legally entitles care leavers to aftercare support until age 21, or in some cases 23. But in practice, the majority receive little or nothing. Veena Lal, who founded Karm Marg, a home for at-risk children on the outskirts of Delhi, puts it plainly: ‘Without guidance and support, many risk once again falling through the cracks.’
Building CLiC: A Platform Led by Care Leavers, for Care Leavers
Determined to change this, Mehta and Sharma co-founded the Careleavers Inner Circle, known as CLiC — a social impact, tech-enabled startup whose stated mission is to be ‘led by care leavers, for care leavers.’ Supported by UNICEF, they began by building a database of care leavers in Rajasthan before expanding into a national tech platform. Today, CLiC has over 3,200 registered members, 14 staff members, dozens of volunteers, and operates across four Indian states.
New members receive a care kit containing a smartphone, hygiene essentials, and clothing. They also gain access to job listings, professional skills courses, free counseling, and a peer community built around shared experience. Most CLiC members are care leavers under 30. The peer model is deliberate. ‘Children are often mistrustful of the establishment, but open up when they learn we’ve been through this same transition,’ Mehta says. ‘Sometimes, they don’t talk immediately, but call late at night for a heart-to-heart.’
Practical Support With Real Numbers Behind It
CLiC has conducted transition preparedness workshops with 16- to 18-year-olds still inside childcare institutions and has supported over 1,450 children in developing concrete transition plans. Mohsin Sheikh, additional director at CLiC, highlights one often-overlooked crisis: many care leavers cannot obtain government-issued Aadhar cards because they lack a permanent address, a mandatory requirement. Despite that systemic barrier, CLiC has helped over 600 members secure their documents.
On employment, CLiC has partnered with companies including Indian fast food chain Haldiram’s, which offers three-month training programs followed by employment. In Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, Pratham Education Foundation helps CLiC members build skills and access job opportunities. So far, 410 care leavers have gained professional skills through the network, and 320 of those have found jobs.
The emotional dimension is just as intentional. Mausumi Das, who heads CLiC’s West Bengal operations and grew up in a children’s home in Assam, left institutional care in 2016 feeling profoundly isolated. ‘Everyone other than me seemed to have a family, a home,’ she says. When she connected with other care leavers in 2021, it was, she says, ‘like a homecoming.’ Now 29, Das still identifies as a care leaver and works to give others the belonging she found late. CLiC members can also access Mpower, an online counseling platform created by the Aditya Birla Education Trust, for additional mental health support.
A Gap That Demands Systemic Attention
A 2019 study of care leavers across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Delhi found that among 435 respondents, 44 percent had no say in their own care and rehabilitation planning. That figure — nearly half of the young people surveyed — underscores why peer-driven platforms like CLiC fill a gap that formal government structures have consistently failed to close, despite legal obligations under the Juvenile Justice Act.
‘By connecting them to companies who train them and eventually hire them as well, we’re helping our members become truly independent,’ Mehta says. ‘And yet we stay emotionally connected with them, just like a family would.’ For the 30,000 young people who age out of India’s childcare system each year, that combination of practical infrastructure and genuine human connection may be the most important thing CLiC offers — proof that care does not have to end at 18.
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