India Launches Raksha: AI-Powered Child Protection Tool At Prosperity Futures Summit

India has debuted Raksha, an AI-enabled system to prevent and address child trafficking, marriage, and online exploitation. Developed with civil society partners, Raksha maps risk zones, tracks crime networks, and enhances services for vulnerable families, aligning with the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 objectives.

India has launched an AI-powered child protection tool named 'Raksha’. It targets child trafficking, child marriage, and Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material. The launch took place at the 'Prosperity Futures: Child Safety Tech Summit’. The event is the official pre-summit for the India-AI Impact Summit 2026.

Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for MeitY and Commerce and Industry, unveiled Raksha. The summit was organised by Just Rights for Children with India Child Protection as strategic partner. It was held in affiliation with MeitY. The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 will run from 16 to 20 February 2026.

Raksha has been developed by Just Rights for Children. It uses a network of over 250 civil society organisations. These groups work across more than 451 districts in India. The system aims to improve prevention, detection, and response to crimes against children nationwide.

The tool uses AI to analyse large national datasets. It maps trafficking and child marriage heat zones in real time. It identifies vulnerable children and communities. It tracks economic organised crime in trafficking, including source and destination points. It also detects new exploitation patterns and emerging high-risk pockets.

Addressing the summit digitally, Jitin Prasada said, “True measure of technology lies in the protection of the most vulnerable. Children represent our future and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that the digital world they are in and will inherit is safe, inclusive and empowering. I am pleased to know that Just Rights for Children is launching AI-enabled child safety technology for prosperity, empowerment, trust and protection."

He added, “Raksha tool encapsulates the values of safeguarding children, ensuring a strengthened child protection system. I congratulate Just Rights for Children for taking this responsibility head-on and organizing this consultation to bring a dynamic and diverse range of stakeholders for a constructive deliberation on using AI and technology for safe and prosperous today and for the future of our children."

Bhuwan Ribhu, Founder of Just Rights for Children, said India is using AI to improve child protection and child prosperity. He described Raksha as a key step in building a large technology-based protection system. He said it could help track every child needing care and every vulnerable family.

He said Raksha would turn data into knowledge and action. This, he noted, can widen access to justice and improve services for vulnerable families. He said it strengthens India’s commitment to safe and prosperous futures for children. He stressed that technology would be used “for every child”.

Member of Parliament Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu spoke on AI and prevention. He said, “Artificial intelligence is no longer a future promise. It is a present reality. It shapes how we learn, govern, work, and increasingly, how and who our children engage with. AI allows us to move from reaction to prevention, from documenting harm to predicting risk."

He noted that patterns of child vulnerability already exist in data. He said AI can link these dots and produce early warnings. He stressed that such systems should support, not replace, human judgement. He called prevention “morally imperative” and urged cooperation between government, technologists, civil society, academia, and communities.

Raksha has three focused tools within one system. The first aims to reduce economic vulnerability for families at large scale. It focuses on preventing child marriage. The second tackles organised trafficking as an economic crime. It works to predict crime and trace financial links in trafficking networks.

The third Raksha tool targets digital child protection. It detects, analyses, and maps online heat zones linked to CSEAM. It tracks IP addresses linked with creation, upload, download, and use of such content. This is meant to support enforcement against online child exploitation across platforms and regions.

The summit featured four plenary sessions. These were titled 'AI-accelerated towards social Transformation’; 'Raksha: Framing Safer Digital Spaces for Children’; 'Tech for Good’; and 'AI, Awareness and Action: Communication and narrative for the Future’. Speakers discussed predictive prevention, behaviour analysis, law, grassroots work, risks, rights, and duties for children online.

Participants included Daya Shankar from the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Priyanka Ribhu of C-LAB for Children. Other speakers were Mathilde Cerioli, Nomisha Kurian, G K Goswami, Harshvardhan, Dhananjay Tingal, Anil Raghuvanshi, Bally Sappal, Anupriya Mohta, Dr. E. Khalieraaj, Mayank, Sampurna Behrua, Gaurav Mittal, and Atul Agarwal.

Just Rights for Children reported large-scale impact in 2025. Working with NITI Ayog, it linked more than 2 million vulnerable families to welfare schemes. It said it prevented 198,628 child marriages. It also rescued 55,146 children from trafficking and exploitation during that year.

In 2024, a petition by Just Rights for Children led to a Supreme Court change. The court criminalised downloading and storage of CSEAM. It also ordered use of the term CSEAM instead of child pornography. The JRC network works with law agencies on such cases nationwide.

The JRC network has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Railway Protection Force. They cooperate to rescue children from traffickers using rail routes. The network helped enable further action in 73,258 CSEAM cases. These efforts link field work with legal and digital enforcement.

The Government of India will host the India-AI Impact Summit in February 2026. It will be the first global AI summit held in the Global South. The event will gather global leaders, CEOs, and policy makers. It will focus on artificial intelligence and India’s growing role in related talks.