CHENNAI: Children otherwise found eligible to enrol under the government’s Anbu Karangal largely lose out on inclusion under the scheme due to the absence of stipulated documents like death certificates of their parents, TNIE has found.
Murugan (52), an autorickshaw driver raising his late relative’s three children, said their mother died by suicide in 2011 and their alcoholic father passed away near Perungalathur in 2017. Although the family identified his body and performed the final rites, they never obtained an official death certificate. As we are not in touch with the family of the children’s mother, we doubt whether her death certificate was obtained, he added.
Murugan said he has been trying in vain to secure the death certificate of the children’s father for the past 1.5 years. “Parent-less children should get the scheme benefits, but I could not enrol them because of this missing document. Their school has also tried to help us, but the application is yet to be approved,” he added.
Teachers in Chennai schools told TNIE that such cases are not isolated. They said many children are also left in the care of their grandparents or relatives after both parents separate or abandon them. Though these children also face vulnerabilities similar to those who have lost their parents, they are excluded from the scheme, they added.
One such caregiver, D Balaji (32) of Madhavaram, has been raising his sister’s two daughters after both parents abandoned them about 11 years ago. A wholesale onion vendor, Balaji said, “We live in a rented house and I also have a newborn child to support. But as the Anbu Karangal scheme does not appear to cover children abandoned by living parents, the girls were unable to apply. The government should verify such cases and include them.”
Chennai corporation schools have so far identified 704 parentless students, but only 59 have been enrolled under the scheme, while 49 more are under administrative sanction, the process is still on for others.
When enquired, Director of Children Welfare and Special Services Shilpa Prabhakar Satish told TNIE that children lacking death certificates are comparatively few, adding that appropriate steps could be taken if such cases are brought to notice. Children raised by relatives due to parental separation are covered only under the centre’s Mission Vatsalya scheme, she also said.
