The study was conducted across three tehsils in the Mumbai Suburban district to identify and probe issues of chi protection, efficiency of, and awareness regarding established child protection mechanisms and social protection schemes which have an impact on the development and growth of children. The study explores at length twenty two child protection issues across 10 habitations in each of the 3 tehsils chosen as sample for the study the respondents for the study included four groups children 11 14 years, children 15 18 years, adults (mixed grup arross age, and gender) and duty bearers (AWW, teacher, USHA). At the tehsil level IDis were conducted with tahul level officials which included CDPO, Probation Officer WCD, Education Dept, (WC, IB, Administrative officer (ward Tahsildar, and labor department officer While due to the dual constraints of time and resources the sample size was limited to three tehsils of the district, one can safely argue that the issues which have surfaced during the study are representative of the district

This study would have been all but possible without the support and enthusiasm of many individuals. We extend ou heartfelt gratitude to the District Administration of the Mumbai Suburban district, with the District Collector at its helm, for their cooperation since the inception of the study. We are thankful to UNICEF represented by Alpa Vora Child Protection Specialist, Rajeshwari Chandrasekar, Chief, UNICEF Maharashtra Field Office, Santosh Shinde and Yamini Suvarna for anchoring, advising, strategizing, communicating and supporting the team at every stage to ensure the research was completed in time and effectively.

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