When You Turn 18 in Foster Care, You're on Your Own—Until Now

Girish Mehta was 12 when he entered a childcare institution in Jaipur. Anisha Sharma grew up in a Delhi home for children living with HIV and AIDS. Both had something in common: when they turned 18, the system that had sheltered them for years simply let them go. No safety net. No guidebook. No family waiting at home.

This is the reality for approximately 30,000 Indian teenagers every year. While the country’s Juvenile Justice Act legally guarantees“aftercare”support until age 21 (or 23 in some cases), the gap between what the law promises and what actually happens on the ground is cavernous. Most care leavers step into adulthood with little more than the clothes on their backs and a mountain of uncertainties about jobs, housing, education, and basic survival.

Instead of accepting that as inevitable, Mehta and Sharma decided to build something different. In 2021, they founded Careleavers Inner Circle (CLiC), a tech-enabled peer support network specifically designed by and for care leavers. The premise is elegantly simple: the people who understand what you’re going through aren’t social workers or government officials—they’re other people who’ve lived it. Today, CLiC operates across four Indian states with over 3,200 members, a team of 14 staff members, and dozens of volunteers. New members receive a care kit with a smartphone, essentials, and clothes, but more importantly, they gain access to job training, free counseling, and a community that actually gets it.

The work fills a profound void. A 2019 study of care leavers across five Indian states found that 44 percent had no voice in their own rehabilitation planning. Many were encouraged to reunite with biological families or, in the case of girls, to marry—solutions that prioritized moving them out rather than moving them forward. CLiC’s approach flips the script: professional skills training, career guidance, shared housing support, and peer mentorship through a buddy system. They’ve connected care leavers with employers like Haldiram’s and partnered with Pratham Education Foundation to build job readiness. The results speak for themselves: 410 care leavers have gained professional skills through CLiC; 320 have found employment.

But beyond the logistics, what CLiC has unlocked is something harder to measure but no less vital: belonging. Mausumi Das, who heads CLiC’s operations in West Bengal and is herself a care leaver, describes meeting other people with her exact lived experience as“like a homecoming.”Research on peer support shows that networks built around shared hardship reduce loneliness, anxiety, and depression—partly because being truly understood replaces isolation with recognition. Mehta and Sharma recognize this is often what care leavers need most.“Children are often mistrustful of the establishment, but open up when they learn we’ve been through this same transition,”Mehta explains. Sometimes that conversation happens at 2 a.m. over the phone—a lifeline when the weight of adulting feels unbearable.

The challenge now is scale and sustainability. CLiC’s tech platform makes serving many members efficient, but funding remains tight. Mehta and Sharma spend considerable time courting corporate and nonprofit partnerships to keep the operation growing. Yet even as they chase resources, they’ve stayed true to their original vision: help care leavers become independent—truly independent, not just moved out—while remaining emotionally connected. Because turning 18 shouldn’t be the moment the world stops showing up for you. It should be the moment a different kind of family steps in.