An estimated 2,500 lost a parent to the virus between March 2020 and August 2021: Govt. data
Over 100 children in the Capital were orphaned while nearly 2,500 lost a parent to COVID-19, from the time it assumed pandemic proportions till a little after the conclusion of its devastating second wave, according to Delhi Government statistics.
The Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) identified over 250 orphaned children and over 6,000 children left with a single parent between March 2020 and August 16 this year. Over 40% of them, in both categories, are understood to have been impacted by COVID-19.
In need of care, protection
Rashmi Singh, special secretary-cum-director, WCD and Social Welfare, said inquiries regarding all children identified as having been orphaned had been completed and over 230 of them were declared in need of care and protection. In single-parent cases, of the over 5,500 cases, over 5,000 were declared in need of care and protection by the department.
“The mandate of the department is to identify and ensure that children found to be vulnerable for whichever reason must receive care and protection. The need to enhance the identification and a focused response towards such children was heightened due to the pandemic,” Ms. Singh said.
“In addition to stepping up our efforts to identify them through existing means such as local intelligence, during the second wave, we went to the extent of making public appeals through garbage collection vehicles operated by various civic bodies, asking for help in finding children in need of assistance on helpline number 1098,” she added.
Ms. Singh underlined the need for community vigilance with the vulnerability of such children having been aggravated due to the pandemic as well as the significance of connecting citizens impacted by COVID-19 in one way or another with existing welfare schemes.
The WCD has begun child-centric convergence-cum-facilitation camps where stakeholders are brought on a common platform to facilitate completion of procedural requirements for access to schemes and services. These range from opening of bank accounts of minors and declaring of guardians to Aadhaar enrolment among others. Such camps were organised by the department on September 27 and 28 at all the Child Welfare Committees across Delhi.
According to the department, 167 bank accounts were opened on the spot, along with 184 Aadhaar enrolments, besides the facilitation of 1,800 children or families. More such camps, Ms. Singh said, will be organised on a monthly basis.
