Up to 577 children have lost their parents to the devastating second COVID-19 wave that has swept the country in the past few months, Central government sources have said. These minors are now living with their immediate family, they said, asking the various state governments to take care of them.
The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is in touch with the various state governments to ensure those children were attended to adequately, sources informed ANI today.
An AFP report dated May 19, meanwhile, put the figure at much higher: "Thousands of children have lost one or both parents in the new pandemic wave ravaging India, where there were already millions of orphans."
Quoting child rights NGO Protsahan India Foundation, it said, "Children whose parents have died or are sick have been reduced to selling vegetables on the streets."
India has lost over three lakh people to the pandemic, a large number of them during the second wave that set off earlier this year. This upsurge found the country's medical system so unprepared that scores of patients died simply due to a lack of resources, particularly oxygen.
On May 18, Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal government declared that the minor children of such victims in Delhi would get Rs 2,500 a month till they turn 25, while their education will be paid for by the state government.
"Many children have lost both parents because of Covid...such children should not think of themselves as lonely and helpless. I stand with them all the time," Mr Kejriwal had said.
Delhi has been particularly hard hit by the second wave, with daily new cases peaking at nearly 30,000 a few weeks ago.
In early May, the Karnataka government appointed a nodal officer to ensure that children orphaned by Covid got both immediate and long-term assistance.
