'Twenty million orphaned children in India'

New Delhi - Twenty million children in the country do not have either of their parents and lack adequate care and support, an orphaned children's welfare organisation said Tuesday.

SOS Children's Villages India General Secretary Rakesh Jinsi said this while releasing a report, 'Family Focus-Challenges and Solutions', at the Indian Women's Press Corps here to mark the International Day of the Families.

"Family shapes up a person's nature and characteristics. In fact, social scientists believe that the social problems we currently face can be attributed to the changing familial structures over last few decades," he said.

He said SOS Children's Villages in 48 years of its existence had helped 2,500 children settle into mainstream society and is currently helping 6,500 children at 33 centres across the country.

"Besides the facilities for the abandoned children, we are now working with at-risk families and strengthen them so that the children of such families do not have to face abandonment. Currently, we are helping around 16,500 children under this Family Strengthening Programme," he added.

He said SOS provided a family-like environment to the abandoned children in small villages of 10-20 SOS families, each headed by an SOS mother and that this approach was more fruitful than other institutional care methods like orphanages.

However, he said, they were "dependent on foreign charities for 75 percent of their requirements".