In the recent affidavit filed in the suo moto matter taken up by the Supreme court, NCPCR said that in Haryana 2438 kids below the age of 18 are orphaned owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Whereas the state government’s data claims that there are only 105. Such children are facing the challenge of huge data disparity. The different States have a different database for these children, which are not matching with the national agencies who are surveying on the ground, hence the benefits that are supposed to reach the child on the ground, are still missing the plot.
The Daily Guardian met such three kids of Haryana’s Panchkula, whose details still have not been sought by the department of Women and Child Development. 14 years-old Sindhiya (name withheld), wishes to sell her small house so that she may meet the expenses of her siblings as her parents passed away due to Covid-19. Her two siblings are studying in school while she is now working somewhere as a domestic helper. Her neighbors are trying hard to get her name adjusted to the Government list so that some remuneration starts coming to the kids. But, says Shikha Sachdeva of Sector 6, due to the laxity of the departments, the matter is not getting sorted.
As many as 30,071 children were orphaned, lost a parent, or abandoned mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic as per data submitted by different states till June 5, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) informed the Supreme Court on 6 June 2021. Of the total, 26,176 children have lost a parent, 3,621 have been orphaned and 274 have been abandoned. The commission clarified to the apex court that the total data given in the present affidavit includes the data already submitted to the court till May 29, which said that 9,346 children were abandoned, orphaned, or lost a parent mostly owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently Chandigarh Education department gave a list of 46 kids who lost either of their parents or were orphaned due to Covid-19. But on the Baal Swaraj portal, Chandigarh claims to have ZERO orphans and 2 kids who lost either of their parents.
As per NCPCR, Himachal Pradesh has a list of 98 kids who were orphaned and 803 kids whose either of parent died, whereas Punjab claimed to have 23 kids as orphaned and 106 kids whose either of parent died or are abandoned.
“NCPCR collected data from 1 April 2020 to date which includes data of every child who was orphaned due to any reason, and the process of uploading the data on Baal Swaraj portal is still on, says Priyank Kanoongo, Chairman NCPCR.
Hema Sharma Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Haryana, told The Daily Guardian, “We are uploading data on Baal Swaraj portal, we have a record of 105 kids who are orphaned due to the pandemic. I will find out why this much gap is found in NCPCR figure”.
