Delhi High Court notice on orphans

The Delhi HC on Friday asked the Centre and Delhi government to respond to a plea seeking a scheme for the welfare, education, living arrangement for orphans during the pandemic.

The court also issued notice to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Delhi government and its Department of Social Welfare on the petition by a social worker.

Harpal Singh Rana, in his plea, said he sought the information through Right to Information (RTI) Act for the welfare schemes introduced by the government for the orphan children. He said the information which he received had variations with respect to welfare of the orphan children.

The plea referred to some cases where children who had lost their parents are living with grandparents. In one of the cases, a child, whose parents died and has six siblings, had applied to the Social Welfare Department. But the child was told that the department only provides old-age pension, disabled pension and financial assistance (Delhi Family Benefit Scheme).

The Women and Child Development Department replied to the child that since he does not fall within the eligibility rules and regulations of its schemes, he was not entitled to get any benefit, the petition claimed. It also stated that in such cases grandparents or other relatives who are residing or taking care of those children face a great difficulty to maintain or to educate the children due to non-availability of funds with them.