The worst effect of the Covid pandemic, after the human toll, is the large number of orphaned children left behind.
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Indian orphans in pandemic - Left alone and struggling
- The story: Lakhs of Indians perished in the Covid pandemic, many of them leaving behind their young children helpless. State and Union governments announced schemes to help such needy children, but help has been very slow to reach the most needy.
- Sad scene: According to data from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, as of August 23, 2021, India had identified 1,01,032 such children. Of these, 92,475 children lost a single parent and 8,161 children were orphaned – the total also includes 396 children who were abandoned during the pandemic. Orphanhood and caregiver deaths are a hidden pandemic resulting from COVID-19-associated deaths.
- Maharashtra is home to the highest number of children who lost one or both parents to Covid-19: a total of 15,395 children as of August 23
- Gujarat identified 9,033 such children, Odisha 8,498, and Andhra Pradesh 7,514. The most populous state in India, Uttar Pradesh, has identified 7,282 children. (which clearly seems to be an undercount)
- Promise of help: Since the start of the pandemic, many states announced varying forms of assistance to help children who lost parents to Covid-19. These measures include monthly aid, fixed deposits, assistance with educational fees and, in some states, counselling support. Apart from the Rs 10 lakh fixed deposit, the central government’s PM Cares for Children scheme also assures minors who lost both parents (or one surviving parent), or legal guardians during the pandemic a monthly stipend after turning 18, and free education and health insurance.
- But the fine print means that large numbers of children who need assistance may not get it, or at least not when they need it.
- In some states, children are only eligible if the deaths occurred within specific periods – for instance, March 2020 to June 2021 in Madhya Pradesh, and up to September 15, 2021, in Odisha. The measures also don’t cover those, like Vishwajeet, who are over 18 years of age and still studying.
- Most of these states’ measures are focussed on orphans. This leaves out the more than 92,000 children who lost a single parent in India. Of the children in Maharashtra who lost a parent, 85.7% of children lost their father (2.9% lost both father and mother), typically indicating the loss of a major, or only, income source. But the assistance available to them is limited to the Bal Sangopan Yojana scheme.
- In other, states, too, the assistance offered to these children is unlikely to suffice for their living and educational expenses. Gujarat announced a sum of Rs 2,000 per month for children who lost a single parent and Rs 4,000 for orphans, while Odisha has committed to paying Rs 2,500 per month to children who lost one or both parents. Andhra Pradesh has announced a meagre aid of Rs 500 per month for children who lost a single parent.
- Even where aid is available, children are frustrated by how long they will have to wait to access it.
- What studies show: According to the Lancet study, “Psychosocial and economic support can help families to nurture children bereft of caregivers and help to ensure that institutionalisation is avoided.” But this advice is hard to implement in a country like India, where childcare facilities are skeletal and a short-staffed system is already overwhelmed with the rising number of children who have lost a caregiver. Although they are working hard, child protection officers are slowed down by a rule-bound administrative system. Numerous children remain unidentified, timely financial aid is yet to reach many families, and psychological support to the children has been delayed.
- How to trace: The process to find children whose parents succumbed to Covid-19 is tedious. In Mumbai, for instance, the WCD took phone numbers and addresses of those who had died of Covid-19 from civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and narrowed the list down to deaths in the 20-60 age group, the pool most likely to have left behind minor children. Between March 2020 and June 2021, there were 6,531 such fatalities. Officials began a painstaking exercise to first call the numbers in records, then, if numbers didn’t work, to visit homes and trace children and find out if they had moved from that address to another city or state. In many cases, parents died after showing symptoms of Covid-19, but no RT-PCR tests were carried out to confirm the disease. Government figures may have missed several Covid-19 deaths that went unreported, especially in hotspots.
- Timely help needed: There are stories of psychological trauma and economic distress from all over the country. Many families cannot access the psychological care they need. There is class divide even in the way grief is handled. Timely counselling is important, else these children can develop low confidence, social anxiety, lack of trust as they grow. Such trauma can change their personality. In most cases, they recover, but a handful can slip into depression.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) What went wrong in India's strategy to handle Covid-19? Explain. (2) Several lakh children are suffering as they lost parents in the pandemic. Why is government help taking time to reach such kids? Analyse.
#Covid #orphans #PMCARES
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