whether the Government has issued any directions to State Governments to ensure Care and protection of Children adversely impacted by COVID-19, as mandated under the JJ Act,2015;.
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government has maintained a data base of the number of Children who were severely affected by the pandemic; and
(d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
(SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a) to (d): The Ministry has asked all the States/UTs to ensure that all the children in need of care and protection are reported to the respective Child Welfare Committee and rehabilitated in accordance with the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act). The States and UTs have also been asked to take immediate action for care and protection of children adversely impacted by COVID 19, in accordance with the provisions of the JJ Act 2015 and Rules thereunder, while leveraging the facilities funded under the Child protection Services scheme. Advisories and guidelines were issued to encourage COVID appropriate behavior, monitoring of Child Care Institutions and coping strategies during COVID times for mental health support to children and care givers. A responsibility matrix defining role of primary duty holders at all levels from State to Panchayati Raj Institutions was also shared with States/UTs.As per information provided by States/UTs, data of orphan children who have lost their parents to Covid since April 2021 to 28.05.2021, is as per Annexure.
Hon’ble PM has announced PM CARES for children scheme to support children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian or adoptive parents due to COVID-19 pandemic. The scheme provides support for education and health and will create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age. This corpus will be used to give a monthly financial support/ stipend form 18 years of age, for the next 5 years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher education and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use. The scheme is accessible through an online portal i.e. pmcaresforchildren.in. The portal has been introduced to all the States and UTs on 15.07.21. Any Citizen can inform the administration regarding a child eligible for support under this scheme through the portal.
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Annexure
Annexure to part (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.1965 for 30.07.2021 by Shri Kuruva Gorantla Madhav, Shrimati Chinta Anuradha, Shri T. R. V. S. Ramesh and Dr. Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi regarding “Protection of Covid Affected Children”.
As per information provided by States/UTs data of orphan children who have lost their parents to Covid since April 2021 to 28.05.2021 is as follows:
Sl. No. Name of State No. of orphaned children
1 A&N Island 0
2 Andhra Pradesh 119
3 Arunachal Pradesh 0
4 Assam 3
5 Bihar 0
6 Chandigarh 0
7 Chhattisgarh 16
8 Dadra Nagar Haveli & Daman Diu 2
9 Delhi 1
10 Goa 0
11 Gujarat 45
12 Haryana 0
13 Himachal Pradesh 13
14 J&K 8
15 Jharkhand 11
16 Karnataka 09
17 Kerala 09
18 Ladakh 0
19 Lakshadweep 0
20 Madhya Pradesh 73
21 Maharashtra 83
22 Manipur 1
23 Meghalaya 1
24 Mizoram 0
25 Nagaland 0
26 Odisha 10
27 Puducherry 2
28 Punjab 20
29 Rajasthan 19
30 Sikkim 0
31 Tamil Nadu 8
32 Telangana 23
33 Tripura 0
34 Uttar Pradesh 158
35 Uttarakhand 8
36 West Bengal 3
Total 645