Uttarakhand to give Rs 2k/month to caretaker of every orphan

DEHRADUN: In the wake of an increasing number of children being orphaned by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state department of women and child development (WCD) has made it mandatory for Covidpositive patients to fill in the details of their children and the guardians to whom they should be handed over in the event of death of both parents. The details have to be filled up at the time of hospital admission. The state will also give Rs 2,000 per child per month to their caretakers along with the other facilities, Rekha Arya, state minister for women and child development said on Sunday.
“We will extend all possible financial help for the education and well-being of the children to their guardian who should ideally be a close family member,” Arya said.
Arya said the measure aims at preventing the children from falling into the hands of human traffickers. “We are also taking the help of over 20 NGOs to take care of all such children if the situation calls for it,” she said.
The director of the state WCD department, Yogendra Yadav, said they are working towards giving a ‘home environment’ to an orphaned child rather than send them to a shelter home straight away.