The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights had traced and identified around 3,500 children who had lost one parent and 70 children who had lost both in the second wave. More than 1,500 children studying in Delhi’s private schools who lost their parents to Covid have been adjusted as EWS students so they can continue studying without paying fees.
After the distress caused by the second wave in April-May 2021, governments had announced a slew of measures to aid families who had lost their primary earners to the virus. The large number of children impacted by the deaths of their parents and guardians was also at the epicentre of discussions.
The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights had traced and identified around 3,500 children who had lost one parent and 70 children who had lost both in the second wave. According to provisions to ensure the continuation of their education in the same school, 1,513 children who had been fee-paying students in private schools have been adjusted in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Group (DG) category resulting in a complete fee waiver, state records maintained by the commission.
The union departments of school education and women and child development had written to the chief secretaries of all states stating that to ensure continuity in the education of children who have lost their parents to the pandemic, all efforts must be made to bring them under the fold of various schemes of the department of school education and literacy.
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Following this, the Delhi education department directed that such children studying in private schools can be accommodated under the existing freeship provisions for students from economically weaker sections in schools.
“… all DDEs districts are directed to ensure that children who have become orphans or lost a parent after March 2020, either due to Covid-19 or otherwise, such orphans need due attention to enable them to continue their education in the school,” the DoE had directed.
To implement this, it stated that such students in private schools running on public land may be accommodated in the same school as freeship students.
Other private schools had been told that these students may be treated as studying under EWS/DG category so they can receive free education up to class VIII with reimbursement paid to the school by the DoE. It stated that after class VIII, they may be admitted to any government school.
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