UP gathering details of Covid orphans for rehab

LUCKNOW : With Uttar Pradesh battling an intense second wave of the pandemic, the state government is collecting details of all such children below 18 years of age who have lost their parents to Covid-19, officials say. The step is being taken to ensure their rehabilitation.

The state’s department of women and child development has written to all district magistrates across UP to prepare a list of all such children.

“The department is in the process of collecting details of all such children orphaned in the pandemic so that immediate assistance could be provided to them,” said V Hekali Zhimomi, principal secretary (department of women and child development).

The initiative comes even while social media is flooded with posts requesting to adopt such children.

The list has to be submitted by May 15 to the director (Women Welfare) and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to facilitate immediate assistance.

The government has also asked district magistrates to collect details of all those children whose parents (both mother and father) are Covid-19 positive or have all symptoms of Covid and have died or they are admitted in hospitals and there is no one to take care of the children.

The department of women and child development has asked district magistrates to take the help of village child protection committees that are headed by gram pradhans in preparing this list. Anganwadi workers are the member-secretary of such committees.

Child Line (1098), special juvenile police units, district child protection units and nigrani samitis (monitoring committees) in the rural and urban areas will also assist the district magistrates in preparing this list.

The list will be handed over the district probation officers

and Child Welfare Committees for immediate help to the children. The state government has also decided to take help of social organisations and NGOs to identify the children.

After identification, these children will be produced before child welfare committees by officials concerned through virtual mode. Any individual can also provide information regarding such children on Child Helpline 1098 and Women Helpline 181. The department of women and child development has also made it clear that such children cannot be adopted without fulfilling all the legal formalities mandated by the Central adoption resource authority. The state government has also warned of stern action against anyone suggesting or pressuring a single parent (mother or father) to send a child to an orphanage in instances where either parent has succumbed to Covid.

The government has also asked the district authorities to keep a watch on the trafficking of orphaned children.