1,742 children orphaned, 7,464 lost a parent to Covid-19, states NCPCR in Supreme Court

June 2: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court stated that as many as 1,742 children have lost both of their parents, while 7,464 children lost one parent to Covid-19 in India. The affidavit further claimed that another 140 children were abandoned from March 2020 till 29 May, 2021.

The affidavit was filed by NCPCR in response to a query by a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Anirudhha Bose last week hearing a suo moto petition on the protection of children from Covid in child care homes. The maximum number of orphaned and abandoned children were reported from Madhya Pradesh where 318 children were orphaned and 104 abandoned.