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Care Leavers Program

When a child turns 18, the law recognises them as an adult and requires them to exit residential care. At this age, however, most young people are still not fully prepared to navigate life independently and therefore need sustained support through further education, vocational training, counselling, mentoring, and guidance.

Udayan Ghar Aftercare

The Aftercare Program bridges the critical transition for young adults aged 18 to 21 who exit Udayan Ghars, by providing continued rehabilitative support and safe accommodation in community-based, group, or scattered housing settings. The program currently runs three dedicated aftercare facilities for Udayan Ghar care leavers, with a strong focus on education and skills development as the essential foundations for a life of dignity and financial independence. To date, it has supported over 200 young adults through a structured continuum of care, enabling them to move towards stable, self-reliant adulthood.

Aftercare Outreach Program (AOP)

The Aftercare Outreach Program (AOP), established in 2020, identifies and supports young people from diverse Child Care Institutions in their journeys towards continued education, vocational training, employment, and independent living.

Born out of Udayan Care’s experience in facilitating smooth transitions for care leavers from Udayan Ghars, and insights from the milestone ‘Beyond 18’ research study conducted in 2018–19, the program was designed to respond to the complex needs of care-experienced youth. AOP now operates across five states in India—Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana—and has positively impacted 830 young adults as of March 2024.

LIFT (Living in Fellowship Together)

Drawing on the “Beyond 18” study on aftercare, published in 2019 by Udayan Care with support from UNICEF and Tata Trust, the study’s central recommendation was to recognise care leavers as among the most vulnerable youth at risk and to ensure their inclusion in care reform and planning processes. Building on this seminal recommendation, Udayan Care, with support from UNICEF, launched India’s first-ever Fellowship for Care Leavers in October 2021, as a logical step to advance the study’s findings.

The Fellowship empowers care leavers to pursue their aspirations, benefit from mentoring by industry experts, and evolve as emerging care leaders. In doing so, they contribute to their communities by creating opportunities for others to join project teams and by building pathways to become professional social workers.
Eight fellows were selected in the first cohort (2022–23) across six states, followed by a second cohort (2023–24) of 12 LIFT fellows from ten states in India. The third cohort (2024–25) expanded further to 16 fellows from eleven states, with fellows actively strengthening state care-leaver networks and, where none existed, initiating networks in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Uttar Pradesh (UP).

To date, fellows have produced high-quality aftercare-focused outputs, including podcasts, documentaries, articles, infographics, success stories, a book, blogs, a website, a research study, a national awareness drive module, and a comic book, all of which have deepened public understanding of the challenges faced by care leavers. In 2025, fellows from all three cohorts came together to launch their alumni collective, LEAP (Lived Experienced Alumni Program), positioning the initiative for continued growth and youth-led systems change in the years ahead.

CLAN (Care Leavers Association and Network)

Udayan Care pioneered Asia’s first care leavers’ network in 2017 in Delhi, named CLAN, which has since inspired the creation of numerous similar networks across India and neighbouring countries. As of 2024, 13 states in India have established such networks, providing care leavers with safe, peer-led spaces for mutual support and resource-sharing. These networks foster sustainable, long-term improvements in care leavers’ lives, while partners and UNICEF have supported the launch of the National Care Leavers Network (NCLN) to amplify this momentum nationwide.