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The convention on the rights of the child -- Child labor -- Child trafficking -- Child soldiers -- Children affected by war and conflict -- Child maltreatment and adoption -- Educational issues -- Issues particularly affecting the female child -- Conclusion: a world fit for children

For over a century, the 'liberal' welfare states have shared ideas about social provision and faced similar socioeconomic and political pressures to restructure their social programs. This paper discusses some of the historic and current pressures on these states to develop and restructure child welfare services. I argue that international ideas about children's rights and 'best practices' have always influenced the development of these programs but current restructuring is more often shaped by concerns about public spending and the role of the state in family life. Despite the potential for governments in these 'rich' nations to enhance the wellbeing of children, unhealthy practices are permitted to continue.

Chapter 1. Introduction—Child Safety, Welfare, and Well-being: Need of the Hour -- Part 1: Nature and Extent of Child Abuse and Neglect -- Chapter 2. Sixty Years of Child Abuse Awareness: Achievements, Errors and Opportunities -- Chapter 3. Cyberbullying: Its Prevention and Intervention Strategies -- Chapter 4. Child Abuse and Neglect in India, Risk Factors, and Protective Measures -- Chapter 5. The Need to Protect Children: Increasing Evidence of the Problem of Corporal Punishment in Pakistan -- Chapter 6. Child Sexual Abuse in a Trusted Relationship: Trauma or Confusion? -- Chapter 7. Conflict in Kashmir: Psychosocial Consequences on Children -- Chapter 8. The Law and Practices of Ritual Male Circumcision: Time for Review -- Chapter 9. Child Well-being At The Crossroads: Impact of Work-Life Interface, Consumerism, and Adult Lifestyle Choices -- Chapter 10. Children Witnessing Violence in India: Nature, Risk factors, Impact and Prevention Strategies -- Chapter 11. Untold and Painful Stories of Survival: The Life of Adolescent Girls of the Paniya Tribes of Kerala, India -- Part 2. Status of Children under Difficult Circumstances -- Chapter 12. Children of Stigmatized Parents: Concern and Fostering Holistic Development -- Chapter 13. Safety and Welfare of Children Under Institutional Care: A Situation Analysis -- Chapter 14. Child Safety and Wellbeing During the Covid-19 Pandemic -- Chapter 15. Status of Street and Working Children in India.

Welfare reform and related policy changes have altered the context in which welfare‐reliant women make choices about employment and family care. Using data from longitudinal qualitative interviews, we examined women's experiences of work‐family tradeoffs and how they think their employment affected their children. Women identified multiple co‐occurring costs and benefits of work for themselves and their children. Benefits included: increased income; increased self‐esteem, feelings of independence, and social integration; and the ability to model work and self‐sufficiency values for children. Costs included: working without increased income; overload, exhaustion, and stress; and less time and energy to be with, supervise, and support children. The relevance of these findings for family policy specialists and practitioners who work with low‐income families is discussed.

The 2001 book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, by Dorothy Roberts, called out the racism of the child welfare system and the harms that system perpetrates on families and communities. Twenty years later, despite numerous reform efforts, the racism and profound harms endure. It is time for transformative change. In this foreword to the symposium Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being, honoring the 20th anniversary of Shattered Bonds, we highlight Professor Roberts' articulation of her development as a family policing abolitionist and summarize the articles and comments contributed from scholars in numerous disciplines and well as impacted parents, family defense advocates and system-change activists. These contributions help us learn from history and political theory; focus on the unique and shared circumstances of Native American families; critique, and call for repeal of, much of current law; condemn the punitive, and racially disproportionate, surveillance of families; and demand a new approach that diverts the massive funding of the foster-care industrial complex into support, services, and healing for families, tribes, and communities. We call for abolition of the family regulation system, the term we use as a more accurate description of what is commonly called the child welfare or child protection system. We situate this call in the context of the more developed movement for prison abolition. The current system is predicated on seeing individual parents as a risk to their children. It fails to see the strengths and resilience of parents and families; the harms of surveillance and removal; and the structural forces that harm children by failing to invest in adequate housing, income, child care, health and mental health services, and educational opportunities for all families. Abolition provides the transformative mind-set that will enable loving and strengthened families to raise happy, healthy, safe, educated, and imaginative children.