Patna: Children are safer in foster and community care than in government shelter homes, experts said on Saturday at a conference on the perspective of non-institutional child care.

Non-government organisation Bhoomika Vihar organised the conference in Patna on Saturday and delegates said children get a more safer environment in non-institutional care than in institutional care comprising shelter and short stay homes.

"The recent rape cases being reported from government-run shelter homes are nothing less than an eye opener on how institutional care cannot be a solution for children in need. Non-institutional care that comprises foster or family care provides a more safer environment for children than institutional care. We have many examples of children who are not living with their biological parents but with relatives or any of their family members, and are safe there. They have not reported any sexual violence but children who live in shelter homes, short stay homes - a form of institutional care - have a high risk of facing sexual and other forms of violence," said Shilpi Singh, the director of Bhoomika Vihar.

"When a child lives in foster care or under the watchful eyes of community, s/he is constantly monitored by relatives or acquaintances and community members," she added. "In such cases chances of sexual violence is minimum but does not imply for children living in institutional care because there they are guarded by unknown people."

Experts claimed government-run homes avoided rehabilitation of children in relatives' homes because of greed of separate funds for such children staying in the homes.

Unicef Bihar's programme manager Shivendra Pandya said non-government organisations need to work collectively for children and share data on them.

National Aluminium Company's director Kiran Ghai, also former chairperson of child protection and women empowerment committee, said parents need to understand their children and notice changing behaviour among them, if any. "Parents are the greatest support for children. Parents need to be friendly with their wards so that the children open up before them," she said.

"The main objective of this programme was to facilitate discussion on good practices in keeping children safe from abuse and neglect. The workshop also aimed to highlight the importance of community based non-institutional care for children living without parental care," added Bhoomika Vihar director Shilpi.