Help out Covid orphans, says SC
Top court directs all states to provide relief
New Delhi, May 28:
Observing that it cannot even imagine how many children in India have got orphaned due to the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court Friday directed the state authorities to immediately identify them and provide relief.
The top court asked state governments to understand the agony of children starving on the streets and directed the district authorities that they be immediately taken care of without waiting for any further orders from the courts.
A vacation bench of
Justices L.N. Rao and Aniruddha Bose directed district administrations to identify the orphans in their areas and upload their data on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) website by Saturday evening.
The top court’s direction came on an application filed by amicus curiae Gaurav Agrawal in the pending suo motu case seeking identification of orphaned children due to Covid-19 or otherwise and providing them immediate relief by the state governments.
The bench said state governments must inform it of the position of these children and the steps they have taken to provide them immediate relief.
We are of the opinion that Centre and State shall get the latest information on the identification of children, who have lost their one or both the parents due to pandemic and the steps taken to attend to their basic needs, it said, and listed the matter on June 1.
At the outset, Agrawal said that he has filed the application as there are numerous children, who have lost one or both the parents or guardians due to the Covid and they need to be immediately taken care of by the state governments.
He said there are two categories of children adversely affected due to the Covid-19 — the ones who lost both parents/guardians and those who have lost the earning parent/guardian of the family since March 2020.
Agrawal said another issue of concern is that there are increased instances of child trafficking, especially of the girl child.