ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Bharati Ghate’s journey in child-centred social work (CSW). The core of her work has been to protect the right of the child to be cared for by his/her parent(s) with opportunities for development, and where the parents are not available, by a substitute family. It includes her efforts to promote kinship care of children in the absence of parental care, and adoption of institutionalised children declared free for adoption by Indian families. She also elaborates upon her work of rehabilitating children affected by an earthquake, in their own or kin families, by providing family-based services, and working with local administration to protect their rights. The chapter describes her efforts at gatekeeping to explore the possibility of family care of children within the framework of the Juvenile Justice Act. Later, she highlights her approach of child-centred family strengthening, which she used while working with families in a metropolitan city as well as in small villages. She believes that strengthening the child’s family needs to be prioritised over family-based alternative care options and on the strength of collaborative efforts between the state and non-state actors in the field of CSW.
