KOCHI: It was last year that 18-year-old Adil (name changed), a native of Ernakulam, lost both his parents to Covid. He has been staying with his relatives since then. However, they are finding it difficult to support his education and other needs as they aren’t financially stable. Thanks to the fixed deposit of Rs 3 lakh received from the state government, Adil can now continue his studies without any hurdles.
A compensation of Rs 3 lakh has been put as a fixed deposit, along with a monthly sum of Rs 2,000 which is being given to each child as financial help by the state government. Just like Adil, Aakash (name changed), a Class IX student who was also orphaned by the pandemic, has been provided with the same compensation.
As per the data by the women and child development department, the lives of 3,800 children have been badly affected due to the pandemic and they have either been orphaned or lost at least one parent to Covid. As many as 3,658 children in the state lost one of their parents to the pandemic while 113 children were orphaned. Thrissur district has the most number of children, 16, who lost both their parents, followed by Palakkad (12) and Thiruvananthapuram (11).
A major concern for children who have lost both parents to Covid is their future security — financially and socially. Considering this, the Supreme Court had recently asked the state governments to reach out to those children who had lost both parents or one parent to the pandemic.
The court had also instructed the states to ensure that the compensation was provided to the affected children. Hence, the district education and child protection officers of the women and child development department have been monitoring and assessing the educational and other needs of the children in the state.
Each district’s child welfare committee has been visiting the houses in its jurisdictions and collecting the information on the help that the affected children require.
“Of the eight children we have identified in the district, two who were orphaned have already been given Rs 3 lakh from the CMDRF. We visited their homes and assessed the problems faced by the children. Psycho-social support is also being provided to the children with the help of counsellors and social workers. Due to the financial crisis, many children had also dropped out of school. Steps are being taken to identify those children and support their education,” said Sini K S, child protection officer, Ernakulam.
Chitralekha S, Thiruvananthapuram district child protection officer, said, “Both educational support and psycho-social support are given to the children affected due to the pandemic and have either been orphaned or lost one of the parents or the caretakers. Sponsorship is also being provided to these children through the intervention of the department.”
Venu V S, state programme manager, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), said, “Apart from the compensation of Rs 3 lakh provided by the state government, the Central government has offered Rs 10 lakh under the PM Cares Fund to support the affected children. The scheme is to provide support for the education and healthcare of children who have lost parents or legal guardians due to the pandemic. As per the data, 143 affected children were identified for the state scheme. Of them, 103 children have already received the funds and 40 are pending.”
A helping hand
Total funds sanctioned for the scheme
C3.20 crore