Children, under APW programme in Hela Para, Ward-86 in Kolkata, India are full of joy to wish the world a happy new year.

UNICEF LION Fund: Protecting India's Most Vulnerable Children

Launched by UNICEF USA and philanthropists Purvi and Harsh Padia, the Fund builds on the success of 2018’s Project LION, which reunited over 1.2 million children with their families or placed them in family-based care, after removing them from institutional settings. Now, the LION Fund is innovating and scaling up to reach 18 MILLION CHILDREN.

Support the Lion Fund

At a Glance: Creating Sustainable, Systemic Change for Children
The strategic, multi-faceted partnership has already accomplished much for the children of India.
3.7 Million
Adolescents
reached with messages to combat harmful practices like child marriage
3.96 Million
Children & Caregivers
reached with mental health and psychosocial support services
600,000
Students & Teachers
engaged in violence prevention and response initiatives
A Look at LION in Action
An Integrated Approach
Working Across Five Pillars of Child Protection
UNICEF USA's LION Fund provides direct support for UNICEF's child protection work across the five key areas below, with the goal of strengthening existing capacity and addressing the root causes of violence against children.
1.
Promoting Alternative Care for Children Without Parental Care
Reports indicate that an estimated half of all children in India’s often poorly regulated residential institutions — where they are left extremely vulnerable to abuse and neglect — are there due to poverty and other socio-economic conditions. Following five years of bold child protection system strengthening, which resulted in 1.2 million children leaving institutional settings, Phase Two will continue to emphasize the value-added gains for children in being placed in family care. This phase will also pivot to address the root causes of children’s vulnerability and parental separation — with the goal of preventing children from being separated from their families at all. With its programmatic shift toward prevention, Lion will target child protection system strengthening in eight states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Telangana.
2.
Supporting Mental Health
Children in need of protection are often the very same children in critical need of mental health services. That’s true in India, where an estimated 50 million children are affected by mental health disorders and where suicide is the leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 29. Working in partnership with local community stakeholders and governments, UNICEF’s mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) initiatives have been instrumental in 1) improving early detection and referral services for children and teens’ mental health needs, 2) enhancing the technical skills of mental health practitioners and parents, and 3) countering misinformation related to mental health issues.
In 2023, 393,205 children, adolescents, and caregivers were reached with mental health awareness-raising events and care services.
3.
Eradicating Child Labor
Millions of children in India are forced to go to work, often in dangerous conditions. UNICEF works with government partners to establish the necessary policy framework to end child labor in the country and with businesses to assess supply chains and find sustainable options that avoid child labor. Supporting communities in changing local attitudes about child labor is another focus for UNICEF, as is supporting families with alternative income and better access to preschools, quality education and protection services so that they don’t turn to child labor out of financial hardship or desperation.
4.
Preventing Child Marriage
One in three of the world’s child brides live in India. Currently, 14.2 million women between 20 to 24 years there were married as children, which equates to more than 20 percent of girls marrying before age 18. Risk factors such as limited income and access to educational opportunities increase the likelihood of early marriage and make girls more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. UNICEF’s approach to ending child marriage in India recognizes the complex socio-cultural and structural factors underpinning the practice and addresses negative social norms that maintain its prevalence. UNICEF partners with governments, civil society organizations and young people themselves to shape policies that seek to end child marriage and adopt methods that have proven to be effective at scale. UNICEF also engages youth voices in this work, positioning adolescent boys and girls as leaders to change norms and promote girl’s empowerment.
Across eight states, 3 million girls were provided access to social protection programs to continue their education.
5.
Ending Violence Against Children
UNICEF works with communities and families in India to end violence against children by focusing on prevention. Programs aim to educate and enable families to better recognize and report violence and to foster community discussions on alternative practices such as positive discipline. UNICEF also partners with government and civil society actors to develop effective child protection laws, policies and services and to strengthen the country's child protection workforce.
Background:
The LION Fund’s Innovative Approach to Child Protection
India has well-established policies and legal frameworks which address the rights and protection of children. However, overarching strategies to implement child protection can de significantly hindered due to capacity constraints and the lack of streamlined approaches to implement quality prevention and rehabilitation services. As a result, a “silent pandemic” of abuse, exploitation and harmful practices impacts tens of millions of children across India. UNICEF works tirelessly to ensure that the infrastructure needed for child protection safeguards are instituted and enhances programming that positively influences the lives of India's most vulnerable children.
Recognizing the significant need and progress to be gained by implementing a system-wide approach to child protection in India, LION Founder and UNICEF USA New York board member Purvi Padia and Harsh Padia launched the project alongside UNICEF technical experts in India.
The innovative ways that Project LION, the LION Fund and UNICEF together have responded to India's acute and specific child protection needs include:
partnering with and strengthening national and state government ana social service organizations
preventing child vulnerability to violence, exploitation or trauma by influencing social behavior change in a range of settings and across a variety of audiences
empowering children and adolescents to live healthy, engaged lives
strengthening a variety of child-care environments to best protect children by equipping caregivers with positive parenting and caretaking skills
solidifying legal and policy mechanisms to combat harmful practices
To learn more about Project LION's innovative approach to child protection and how they transitioned 1.2 million children out of residential care facilities, read Compassion to Catalyst: Lessons from Project LION from UNICEF USA CEO Michael J. Nyenhuis, as he describes the impetus and impact of the initiative.