The Supreme Court on May end had said precious time was being lost as children orphaned, abandoned and traumatised by the COVID-19 pandemic were starving without food on the streets of “this large country”. Following this statement, The Supreme Court will examine on Monday (June 6) the help extended to children orphaned by Covid-19 or who lost one parent to the dreaded disease since March in 10 states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka.

A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose will also scrutinise that day the scheme of relief to such children announced by the Prime Minister and suggest the correctives. The case was initiated by the Court suo motu on the condition of children in the protection homes that was expanded to help out children left with nobody to take their care.

In its last hearing on Tuesday, it had directed the state to name a nodal officer of secretary/joint secretary rank and direct them to interact with the Court's Amicus curiae (friend of court) advocate Gaurav Agarwal on the status of these children and submit a detailed report to the court by Sunday. The Court will also identify ten other states where this exercise has to be carried out.

 According to a report submitted to the Court in the last hearing by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), at least 1742 children were orphaned across the country while 9764 lost at least one parent to Covid-19, besides 140 children found abandoned.

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