Hyderabad: As many as 123 children in Telangana lost both their parents to COVID-19 since March 2020, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) data showed.
The data is made available on Bal Swaraj, the online tracking portal of NCPCR which also showed that 103 kids lost their parents to the pandemic in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Around 9346 children in the country are in a hasty need of care and protection, in which almost 7464 kids have lost at least one of the parents, while 1742 lost both because of the pandemic.
Around 140 kids have been abandoned by their parents.
Among the orphans, 4860 are boys and the rest are girls, with 788 orphans who are just in the age group of zero to three, and nearly 1515 orphans are of four to seven of age.
Among the rest, 3711 kids are in the ages of eight to 13 years and 1620 kids are in the age group of 14 and 15. 1712 more kids are in the age group of 16 and 17.
The commission explains that ‘Bal Swaraj’ is the medium to collect data of such children as these children can be an easy target and under high risk of being put into trafficking and flesh trade, NCPCR informed the Supreme court.
Also, every such child affected by COVID-19 pandemic or found to be in any kind of distress must be brought before the concerned Child Welfare Committee under Section 31 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
The report by NCPCR also stated “The Commission has laid out specific recommendations at source, transit and destination hotspots, which outlines basic indicators for the identification of vulnerable families and children at risk of trafficking at the urban level of habitation and will provide a safety mesh at the family level.”
The Commission states that it is also observing and providing benefits of various welfare schemes to such vulnerable families which will help reduce the risk of a child getting trafficked.