New Delhi
The Supreme Court will examine on Monday the help extended to children orphaned by Covid-19 or who lost one parent to the dreaded disease since March in 10 states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka.
A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose will also scrutinise relief scheme to such children announced by the Prime Minister and suggest correctives. The case was initiated by the Court suo motu on the condition of children in the protection homes.
In its last hearing on Tuesday, it had directed the state to name a nodal officer of secretary/joint secretary rank and direct them to interact with the Court's Amicus curiae (friend of court) advocate Gaurav Agarwal on the status of these children and submit a detailed report to the court by Sunday. The Court will also identify ten other states where this exercise is to be carried out.
According to a report submitted to the Court in the last hearing by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), at least 1,742 children were orphaned across the country.
while 9,764 lost at least one parent to Covid-19, besides 140 children found abandoned. The data was collected from the district magistrates.
It also showed that Uttar Pradesh tops with the highest number of children losing either one or both parents (2,110), followed by 1329 in Bihar, 952 in Kerala, 796 in Maharashtra, 776 in Haryana, 712 in Madhya Pradesh, 562 in Himachal Pradesh, 434 in Gujarat, 375 in Jammu and Kashmir, 190 in Chhattisgarh, 159 in Tamil Nadu, 157 in Rajasthan, 116 in Andhra Pradesh, and 115 in Punjab.
