New
Delhi:
The Supreme Court Thursday said the states have to “protect” children, who have
either lost one or both parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensure that
their education is not disrupted at least in the current academic session. The
apex court said that identification of such children is the “starting point” to
find out their needs and their welfare is of paramount consideration.
“Even
if there are 1,000 children without their parent, just imagine what is going to
happen to them. They can be pushed to child labour. They can be landing
themselves to hands of undesirable elements in the society. We don’t know what
will happen to them. These are vulnerable children. So, we have to be extremely
careful about these children,” a bench of justices L. Nageswara Rao and
Aniruddha Bose said.
The
bench said most of these children may not have the means to fend for
themselves. “So, it is the state which has to protect them,” said the bench,
which was hearing a suo motu matter on contagion of COVID-19 in children
protection homes.
The
top court took note of state-wise details of children, who have become orphans
or lost one parent during the pandemic period, and also the status of their
identification process so that benefits meant for them could be extended. The
bench said states have to take pro-active steps in taking care of these
children and also ensure that their education is not disrupted due to the loss
of either one or both parents.
It
said the states may talk to the private schools, where such children are
studying, so that there could be waiver of fee and their education continues at
least for this academic session. The bench observed that if the schools are not
coming forward or willing to waive off the fee, the states can bear the fee of
such children for this academic year at this stage.
The
court said it is necessary that benefits announced by the state governments
should reach the needy children. It said the district magistrates should take
steps to continue uploading the requisite information on the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) ‘Bal Swaraj’ portal as delay
in this process will be detrimental to the interest of the distressed child.
It
noted the state-wise details starting from Andhra Pradesh where 326 children,
who have become orphan, have been identified and 7,110 are those who have lost
one parent during the period. On July 27, the top court had directed all the
states to ensure that children who have either become orphan or lost a parent
during the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year are permitted to continue in
the same school, be it private or government, at least for the current academic
year.
The
NCPCR had earlier informed the bench that as many as 30,071 children were
orphaned, lost a parent or abandoned mostly due to the pandemic as per the data
provided by different states and UTs on the ‘Bal Swaraj’ Portal till June 5.
The NCPCR had given the break up in its affidavit which said there were 3,621
orphans, 26,176 children who have lost one parent and 274 children who have
been abandoned.
The
apex court had also directed the states and UTs to take “stringent action”
against NGOs and individuals who are indulging in illegal adoptions of children
orphaned during the pandemic. It had earlier passed a slew of directions for
care and protection of children who have become orphans or have lost one parent
or abandoned during the pandemic.
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