Two children orphaned by COVID in state

ABDUL WAHAB KHAN | NT

Panaji

Goa has so far only two children orphaned by the coronavirus pandemic, which has created havoc  in the state as also in the country.

According to the  government data  uploaded recently on ‘Bal Swaraj’ portal of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, these two orphans are the 16-year-old boy and the 11-year-old girl from Ponda taluka  and Canacona taluka respectively, who lost their both  parents to the deadly coronavirus.

These orphans were identified by the committee  comprising  district magistrates, high-ranking police officials and senior officials of the health department.

However, the panel  identified only these two children, who have lost both the parents to the pandemic,  and not the children who have one   parent alive.

“We found only two children who have been orphaned by coronavirus in the state. However, these two orphans did not require to be shifted to an orphanage or a childcare centre as their relatives came forward to take care of them. They are also under the watch of the child welfare committee. These orphans have also been entitled with financial schemes run by government departments,” explained a senior official from the women and child development department.

Abiding by the Supreme Court direction to all states, the department of women and child development had written a letter to both the district collectors, police and the health department to identify and submit details on children orphaned  by the pandemic.

In a suo motu matter taken up by the top court, the NCPCR affidavit gave state-wise break-up of the children affected during the pandemic However, Goa did not reflect in the list as data was not ready.

On May 28, the bench directed all the district authorities to upload on  the NCPCR portal the information of children who became orphans after
March 2020.

The NCPCR informed the top court that the tragic fallout of COVID is that it orphaned a large number of children across the country: over 30,000 were orphaned, lost a parent or abandoned in over a year due to the pandemic.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently announced a  scheme called ‘Mukhyamantri Anath Aadhar Yojana’, under which orphaned children would get monthly financial aid.

The government also said that it would  provide free laptops to all orphans studying in Class X, irrespective of their parents succumbing to the coronavirus infection or not.