"Child Development Ministry reports that 34,000 children in Odisha have lost a parent to COVID-19."

"A large number of orphans have been included in the state government's Ashirvad scheme."

Arpit Pattnaik Arpit Pattnaik
Aug 5, 2024 - 11:58
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"Child Development Ministry reports that 34,000 children in Odisha have lost a parent to COVID-19."

The Women and Child Development Ministry revealed that Odisha has the highest number of children who lost a single parent due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. A total of 34,160 children in Odisha lost one parent to the pandemic, followed by Maharashtra with 27,302 and Uttar Pradesh with 19,437 children. According to the Baal Swaraj portal data, 1,82,671 children lost a single parent due to Covid-19 in the entire country. 

However, despite the high number of children affected in Odisha, only 112 of them are enrolled under the PM Cares for Children scheme, which was launched in 2021 to support children who lost either parent, legal guardian, adoptive parent, or surviving parent due to the pandemic. In contrast, Maharashtra has 855 children enrolled, and Madhya Pradesh has 467 children enrolled under the PM Cares scheme. 

A total of 4,532 children are covered under the PM Cares scheme in the entire country. This is significantly lower than the actual number of children affected by the pandemic. Sources indicated that many orphans were instead brought under the state government’s Ashirvad scheme as it covered all children who became orphans during the pandemic, whether due to Covid-19 or any other reason. Unlike PM Cares, the Ashirvad scheme does not limit its support to children orphaned specifically due to Covid-19.

Child rights activist Ghasiram Panda pointed out that one of the reasons for the comparatively low enrollment under PM Cares is the difficulty in obtaining the required documents and certificates to prove that the child’s parent/s died due to Covid-19 during the challenging times of the pandemic. According to the state government's data, from April 1, 2020 to September 15, 2021, 48,209 children in Odisha lost either a parent or their primary caregiver, and 2,077 children lost both parents due to Covid-19 or other reasons.

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