Give succor to kids orphaned due to Covid: SC directs states

With over 3,621 children orphaned and 26,176 having lost one of the parents to Covid, the Supreme Court on Monday directed all the states and the Union Territories to immediately identify and extend relief of food and shelter to the children who lost either both the parents or one of them to Covid and produce them before the Child Welfare Committee (CEWC) within 24 hours of their being identified.

While the top court directed the States/UTs to expeditiously collect information on such children, the Centre informed the court that district magistrate has been made responsible to take care of orphaned or abandoned children during the pandemic. Of the 30,071 children who have either lost both the parents or one of them, 15,620 are boys and 14, 447 are girls and four transgender. 274 children are abandoned with no trace of their parents.

A bench comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose noted with concern that in many cases, after the identification of the children who have lost either both the parents or one of them, they have not been produced before the child welfare committee (CWC). In an apparent dig at the Delhi government for not collecting data on children left orphaned or lost one of the parents, Justice Nageswara Rao reminded it is though a UTs it was not like Dadra & Nagar Havel and needs no direction of the court to take steps for the welfare and benefit of such kids.