Circular image with Where Are India's Children written on the left hand side with a child's face forming a question mark on the right hand side

Child Welfare and Action Foundation

Also known as Where Are India's Children-WAIC, the Foundation helps children in India's shelters reach the legal adoption system.

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Women Led
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Adoption & Foster Care

Where Are India's Children (registered as Child Welfare and Action Foundation) was founded by three adoptive mothers in 2019, to ensure that every abandoned and orphaned child in India’s shelters reaches the legal adoption pool. 

To date, WAIC has:

  • Digitized the records of 23,700+ children in shelters 
  • Helped declare 460+ children legally free for adoption
  • 223 children reached their forever families
  • Trained 2000+ stakeholders in three states – Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka

The Problem

Despite hundreds of thousands of children living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs, aka shelters), very few enter the legal adoption pool. Gaps in documentation, outdated records, lack of training, and an overburdened system make these children "invisible", and they continue to be stuck in institutional care until they age out of the system.

WAIC’s Approach

WAIC bridges the gap between shelters and families through five key pillars:

  1. Technology (CLMS): Our Child Lifecycle Management Solution digitises case records of children living in shelters, and uses algorithms to identify children eligible for adoption, reducing administrative delays.
  2. Fieldwork: Our teams work at the district level to complete documentation and support legal proceedings to declare children legally free for adoption.
  3. Capacity Building/Training: We train CCI staff and government officers on legal regulations and case resolution.
  4. Awareness & Advocacy: We promote the Safe Surrender Law to prevent unsafe abandonment and advocate for policy reforms that prioritise family-based care over institutionalisation.
  5. Older Child & Special Needs Adoption: Preparing parents and children for successful transitions.

Learn more about WAIC’s work here: https://waic.in/

How You Can Help

  1. Donate today! 
  2. Consider becoming a Child Protection Patron – a committed donor with insights into WAIC’s work and regular contact with the founders: https://waic.in/5-5-commitment/
  3. Follow WAIC on LinkedIn and repost to amplify WAIC’s reach: https://www.linkedin.com/company/waic-in/

Contact WAIC

Email us at team@waic.in or feel free to connect with the founders on LinkedIn.
Meera Marthi - linkedin.com/in/meeramarthi
Protima Sharma - linkedin.com/in/protimasharma
Smriti Gupta - linkedin.com/in/smgupta

India
waic.in
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Child Welfare and Action Foundation is hosted at Myriad USA

Fundraisers

Feed fundraiser card link to Because Every Child Deserves a Family : 2026-27 Fundraiser
Circular image with Where Are India's Children written on the left hand side with a child's face forming a question mark on the right hand side
Official fundraiser

Because Every Child Deserves a Family : 2026-27 Fundraiser

Our budget for the 2026–27 fiscal year is $215,000 USD. We ask you to contribute today. Early funding allows us to focus on what matters most: reaching more children, accelerating cases, and making children legally adoptable to reach families. Hundreds of thousands of children live in India’s Child Care Institutions (CCIs aka shelters). Yet only a small fraction ever enter the legal adoption pool. Missing documentation, outdated records, limited training, and an overburdened system makes these children "invisible" and they continue to be stuck in institutional care.  At Where Are India’s Children (WAIC), registered as Child Welfare and Action Foundation, our mission is simple but critical: make every child visible, and bring abandoned and orphaned children into the legal adoption pool.   Our approach combines technology with relentless on-the-ground effort.  We digitize children’s records across shelters using our custom tech, helping identify those who can be made eligible for adoption.  Our social workers diligently and painstakingly work on every case, navigating complex processes to have children officially declared free for adoption under India’s child protection laws. The impact is real. So far, 450+ children have been declared legally free for adoption through WAIC’s work—and over 200 of them have already found families. There is so much more to do. Help us ensure that no child remains unseen, and no child is left waiting. Learn more: https://waic.in/
Raised
$6,350
Next milestone
$7,500
2 supporters
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Child Welfare and Action Foundation is hosted at Myriad USA

Donors

  • Sriram Subramanian

    WAIC is an amazing organization that has directly impacted the lives of hundreds of children by bringing them into the legal adoption pool, without which they would forever languish in shelters. It's an extremely dedicated team that has fou...

  • Christie Coughanour
    To the fundraiser: Because Every Child Deserves a Family : 2026-27 Fundraiser

    My daughter is adopted from India and is thriving. Children need families. WAIC is helping more Indian children be "adoptable" which is so important. Without their commitment, many children would sit in shelters for their whole childhood. T...

    1
  • Krishna Ravuri

    Best wishes to WAIC team

    1
  • Isha Roy

    1

  • Monica Valluri
    1
  • Kavitha Nanduri
    1