EXPRESSING ANGUISH over the plight of children orphaned by Covid or abandoned during the pandemic, the supreme court Friday asked district authorities to “immediately take charge of such children and attend to their basic needs without waiting for any further orders” from the court. A bench of Justices L nageswara rao and Aniruddha Bose also directed authorities to upload data on the number of affected children since march 2020 on the ‘Bal Swaraj’ portal set up by the National Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights (NCPCR) by saturday evening.
It pointed out that the pandemic has created an unprecedented situation, which has a cascading effect on vulnerable children. As per a LiveLaw report, the Bench also noted, “ASG Bhati and Counsel for NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) have submitted that all concerned district authorities may be directed to upload information mentioned above immediately or latest by tomorrow evening for purpose of gathering statistics of children orphaned in pandemic.” A portal named ‘Bal Swaraj’ is operational at all concerned district authorities who have been given access to it with instructions to upload necessary information. Senior Advocate Bhati also said the government has declared child protection staff as front line workers for vaccination.
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