Kids abandoned by relatives due to COVID stigma: DCPCR

NEW DELHI: With several cases now surfacing of children being left to live alone after their parents test positive for COVID-19, the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has now issued an advisory highlighting the detrimental effect of such scenarios on the mental health and emotions of the children.

In a bid to save children who have now become more vulnerable in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the DCPCR has written to District Magistrate and Directorate General Of Health Services (DGHS) to designate a proper place for children where they can live after their parents are taken for treatment.

“There are increasing number of cases where the parents are infected by the virus and are taken to the hospitals for treatment, while the children stay back home. As the children do not accompany their parents to the hospitals, they remain unsupervised and this increases their vulnerability,” DCPCR member Rita Singh states in her letter to the DGHS.

The letter further read, “They also become victims of stigma and hence discrimination by their near and dear relatives, who because of the fear of Corona infection do not prefer to look after the child and further being separated from the parents, adversely affects their mental and physical well being.”

The Commission further in an advisory states that after their parents are tested positive these children are left alone or unnecessarily quarantined or kept in hospitals along with their parents, causing a detrimental effect on the health, emotions, of the child and the child has to undergo pointless trauma and health hazard.

“Therefore the commission advises the designation of a specific room for the children (below 12 years) in the hospital premises where their parents are being taken for treatment or are quarantined.

This will ensure the child is not un-necessarily quarantined in the hospital with parents and is supervised and safe,” read the advisory.

Meanwhile, in another letter to one of the District Magistrates, the DCPCR wrote that there should be specific rooms or places designated for the children (preferably above 12 years) in the district where they can be quarantined.

“Overall monitoring can be done by the respective Child Welfare Committee in the district. This will ensure the child is supervised and safe. It will also help the child in overcoming the trauma of isolation and also that of COVID-19,” read the letter.