Eight-year-old Sandeep and his three-year-old sister from Kesamnenipalli near Kaluvoya in Nellore District had first lost their mother to COVID-19 and then their father and abandoned them.
The children have since been looked after by their uncle Ramasubbaiah, who had a hard time.
The state government’s decision to issue fixed-term loans (FD) for 10 lakh each on behalf of children below the poverty line (BPL) who lost their parents to the dreaded virus was a great relief.
“Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision has given hope to the children whose parents have succumbed to the virus,” said Ramasubbaih as he accepted the FD bonds issued to the siblings by Nellore District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu.
The county government has identified 10 such children so far.
“Takeover no solution”
According to previous experience, the adoption of such children cannot be successful. Children over the age of six do not get along well with their adoptive parents. Therefore, foster care needs to be promoted on a large scale to encourage the care of such children through monthly financial support for immediate family members and additional rationing.
According to official figures, there are about 240 children in Nellore district who have lost either their father or mother and their plight is no different.
“Children who come from such families should also be supported by the government during this crisis hour,” said NVS Rammohan, director of the non-governmental organization HELP.
The government should ensure that such children are admitted to state residential schools, he said.
Meanwhile, the Prakasam District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has stepped up its efforts to identify all of these unhappy children.
While seven children have lost both parents, 91 others have lost a single parent in the district, according to official figures.
Accommodation has been arranged for an 11-year-old girl from Tripurantakam in the state-owned Kasturba Gandhi Balikala Vidyalaya, said the chairman of the CWC, Ch. Bharati. The girl’s father left her after her mother succumbed to COVID-19.
‘Vulnerable Lot’
“Children are most at risk in times of pandemic. This is also the time when hundreds of children drop out of school for various reasons. The partial curfew has forced many adolescent daughters and sons of migrant workers to look for work. Some of them are sexually abused when they go to work unaccompanied by their parents, ”said Ms. Bharati.
“The CWC, in coordination with officials from the education and police departments, has started a massive exercise to identify all of these children and preferably move them to the state residential schools so they can study without interruption,” she added.