Synopsis
Conducted by the Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights ( DCPCR ), the survey evaluated the distribution of THR through anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
AFP
A survey conducted in May this year has found that 91 per cent of the beneficiaries have been receiving nutritional supplements under the Take Home Ration (THR) scheme under which lactating mothers and children below six years of age are provided ration, a Delhi government statement said on Friday. This is a remarkable improvement from May last year when only 23 per cent of the beneficiaries surveyed had received the ration, it said.
The poignant image of two young brothers- the elder one not even in his teens, lost amidst the pendulum of hope and grief in a hospital refuses to go away. It was as though the boys were themselves in a movie, but mere bystanders as they watched crowds around them milling in a fast forward motion.
They looked their age- bewildered, as they waited for news of their covid stricken mother, but didn’t know who or where to ask for help.
I don’t know their fate- whether they still have faith or they were just swallowed by a sea of wailing humanity.
‘In absence of data, these children are now target for traffickers’
The High Court on Monday directed the Centre and Delhi government to respond to a plea seeking to protect children who were orphaned due to COVID-19 against being trafficked till they are legally adopted.
An High Court Bench issued notices to the Union Ministries of Home Affairs, Women and Child Development and Health and the city police on the plea. The court also issued notices to the Delhi government, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The plea filed by Jeetender Gupta, an advocate on record in the Supreme Court, has sought directions to the authorities to provide the interim custody of such children to their relatives or child-care homes and protect their identity.
PILs to safeguard children orphaned due to COVID: HC seeks stand of Centre, Delhi govt
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Last Updated: May 10, 2021, 11:56 AM IST
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Synopsis
The petitioner has sought directions to the authorities to provide the interim custody of such children to their nearest relatives or child-care homes and protect their identity.
The plea has claimed that according to media reports, there has been a substantial rise in the number of cases of child trafficking and child abuse during the ongoing pandemic and therefore, there is an immediate necessity to curb this evil at the stage of its inception itself .
Children orphaned due to COVID-19 should be protected and guarded against being trafficked till they are legally adopted, two PILs have urged the Delhi High Court, which sought the response of the Centre and the Delhi government on the issue on Monday.
Reuters | Bangalore | Published 07.05.21, 12:52 AM
When an Indian children’s rights group tracked down two boys aged 6 and 8 after it was told that their parents were both severely ill with Covid-19 and unable to care for them, the children had not eaten for days.
The case, reported by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) group, which located the boys in a small town in India’s rural heartland, was one of a growing number of emergencies involving children affected by the country’s devastating coronavirus crisis.
The exponential rise in infections and deaths has left some children, particularly in poor communities, without a carer because their parents or other relatives are too ill to cope or have died.