UP govt scheme to assist kids rendered orphan by pandemic

Children who have lost their parents due to the pandemic will be extended all assistance, including financial, by the state government under its sponsorship scheme

Children who have lost their parents due to the pandemic will be extended all assistance, including financial, by the state government under its sponsorship scheme.

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“The state government has decided to tweak rules of the scheme as it mandated to assist only two children of a family. Now, all affected children of a family will be provided financial assistance even if they are more than two,” Manoj Rai, director, department of women and child development.

In a virtual meeting on Tuesday, Rai apprised all district probation officers of the state about the government’s plan regarding rehabilitation of the children rendered orphan due to the Covid.

The state government is collecting details of all such children below 18 years of age who have lost both their parents or either mother or father to Covid. Instructing the district probation officers to collect details of such children, Rai apprised officials of the government’s plan to extend immediate assistance to such children through the sponsorship scheme.

Rai also asked officials to contact Covid hospitals and incharges of Covid command centres of their respective districts to collect details of Covid-orphaned children and provide this information to child welfare committees.

Child Line (1098), special juvenile police units, district child protection units and nigrani samitis (monitoring committees) in rural and urban areas are also assisting the district magistrates in preparing the list of such children.

“Efforts must be made to rehabilitate such children under the care of any family and sending them to a child care shelter must be the last option,” Rai told officials. During the meeting, he also told officials to collect details of frontline workers who have succumbed to Covid so that financial assistance could be provided to their family members too.

The department of women and child development has also asked officials to take adequate steps to prevent child marriages and take necessary steps if any such incident is reported.