Unfair to expect children orphaned by Covid to tackle bureaucracy for some relief, Delhi HC tells state govt

The Delhi high court on Monday observed that it would be unfair to expect children to procure documents for availing of welfare scheme benefits after losing their guardians to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic

The Delhi high court on Monday observed that it would be unfair to expect children to procure documents for availing of welfare scheme benefits after losing their guardians to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said the city government should adopt a proactive approach rather than dealing with such applications in a routine manner as is done during normal (pre-Covid) times when one has to deal with bureaucracy.

“It will be unfair to expect children who lost their parents to be able to procure certificates/documents to avail of benefits which they are entitled to on loss of parents. They will find it cumbersome to run around,” the court said, adding that “when you don’t get food, every hour, every day matters”.

The observations came while hearing a plea by advocate Rakesh Malhotra seeking better facilities for people during the pandemic, including medicines such as amphotericin-B (used to treat fungal infection mucormycosis) and antiviral drug remdesveir (used to treat Covid-19).

She said of the seven children, five are minors while the eldest is 23 years old and the youngest is four years old and needs to be admitted to a school. She further submitted that six of them are girls.

She said though the children were duly provided for, with all basic rations and schoolbooks by the child welfare committee, they are still in dire need of care and support and it is not practically possible for them to repeatedly approach the committee for their daily needs, rations and medicines.

Kaur further said the siblings were given a one-time assistance of ₹10,000 and offered a small job which one of them had to accept to meet their daily needs as no relative came forward to care of them.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, told the court that implementation of the scheme for grant of ex gratia is taking time as verification of documents is required to be done.

To this, the bench observed, “At the end of the day, they (children) want their rights. It is your policy, why should it take so long? It should come from your side without our nudging. That will be called progress.”

It added that the Delhi government should evolve procedures which are simple and easily implementable while ensuring that benefits are not misused by undeserving persons. It asked the chief secretary to file a status report with the procedure involved to deal with welfare schemes under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The court also issued a notice to Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DSLSA) saying it was of the view that DSLSA should play an active role in helping Delhi government to streamline the system and to help children with documents.

The court was also informed that there are 6,200 children who have lost one parent and 292 children who have lost both parents to Covid; the figures are likely to change as and when new data is collected. The matter will be heard next on September 9.