NEW DELHI: At a time when cases of abuse in children’s homes have shaken the nation, Gujarat is showing the way on how foster care can be a sound alternative with the right mix of financial incentives and vetting of foster families with the state seeing a significant jump in children under care from 1,784 in 2015-16 to 9,588 in 2017-18.The state’s success in revamping its four-decade-old foster care system ties in with the Centre’s recent effort to encourage foster care to reduce dependence on child protection homes that are difficult to monitor and have been vulnerable to misuse and the ‘Gujarat model’ is being seen as an experiment that could be emulated.The Gujarat results were shared at a consultation in the capital with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights where the state attributed the turnaround of its ‘Palak Mata Pita Yojana’ to reworking of rules that didn't work well. The changes involved enhancement of monthly care support for a child from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 up to 18 years and inclusion of children in cases where the mother had remarried after the father's death and was unable to take care of the child.A steady increase in numbers followed, with the number of children in foster care rising to 3,534 in 2016-17. “The state’s department of social justice and empowerment is focusing on foster care over putting more children in child care institutions (CCIs). The number of children in CCIs over the last five years has been in the range of 3,800 to 4,200 at any given time,” said Inderjeet Chauhan, programme manager of Child Protection in Gujarat.NCPCR chairperson Stuti Kacker emphasised the need to strengthen the foster care framework and sharing examples from states. “The foster guide put out by NCPCR is an attempt to facilitate implementation of the Model Guidelines for Foster Care 2016 notified by the ministry of women and child development,” she said.