COVID is causing an orphan crisis in India; experts neglect, abuse | Coronavirus pandemic News

Three days after her father died of coronavirus, six-year-old twins Tripti and Pari were found sleeping next to their mother, unaware that she too had become a victim.

Thousands of children have lost one or both parents in a new pandemic wave that is destroying India, where millions were already orphans. He is very concerned about the plethora of opportunities for abandoned minors.

Tripti and Pari, whose mother’s uncle, Ramesh Singh, has been cared for.

“I tell the girls that the parents will be coming home soon,” Singh said, and the name has been changed to protect the children’s identity.

“I don’t mean the truth now … they’re too young.”

After her husband’s death, her mother refused to eat her wholeheartedly, which made it difficult for her to recover from coronavirus, Singh said.

When the knocks on the door were repeatedly unanswered, relatives threw water at the girls to open a window.

They were taken away when the doctors arrived to declare the mother dead.

While caring for the twins, the pandemic – which is claiming thousands of lives a day – is leaving others without caregivers.

‘Emotional tragedy’

Such children “have a high risk of neglect, abuse and exploitation in addition to experiencing emotional tragedy,” said UNICEF India chief Yasmin Haque.

In another case, Indian media reported last month that she had been dead for 48 hours next to her mother and that neighbors were afraid of spreading the virus.

Pandia’s official toll is more than 270,000 in India, although the actual number is believed to be much higher, with many people dying outside the overwhelmed medical system.

“We don’t know how many people are dying, let alone how many orphans there are,” said cybersecurity expert Akancha Srivastava, who launched the children’s coronavirus care phone.

However, online evidence shows a devastating scale.

Social media calls are being made about breast milk and food for children who have lost their mothers.

Some coronavirus orphans are being placed on social media for illegal adoption.

Srivastava said his regular phone received at least 300 calls and messages a day.

“Our authorities are overloaded, people are overwhelmed. In these situations it is very easy to misassign a child to a traffic racket or an adoption racket, ”he said.

Under Indian law, an orphaned child must be seen by a government official and admitted to an institution if there are no relatives to be cared for.

Smriti Irani, India’s women and children’s development minister, warned this month that unofficial approaches to adopting COVID-19 orphans are “cheating” and “illegal”.

The AFP news agency said it had received a message on WhatsApp offering to adopt a two-year-old girl and a two-month-old boy.

“Brahmin children,” the message said, suggesting that the children were Hindus of high caste. The contact number is off and authorities are investigating.

Broken generation

Children whose parents are dead or sick have been reduced to selling vegetables on the street, according to the child rights NGO Protsahan India Foundation.

“We are looking at a generation of children with severe trauma who will be in extreme distress and become broken adults,” Sonal Kapoor said of the foundation.

He said children had a major impact on the recent pandemic, including cases of incest and sex trafficking.

Bachpan Bachao Dhananjay Tingal of Andolan told AFP that the child welfare organization receives about 50 calls a day, a big increase compared to last year.

“It’s not the first time children have been orphaned. This time, the child has to deal with it alone … there are also inhibitions to embrace the child in pain, ”he said.

Some civil society groups have asked parents to prepare a backup plan if they become ill.

For Tripti and Paris, at least, she wants to formally accept her mother’s uncle.

“They had wonderful parents. I hope to be able to help the girls fulfill their dreams, ”she said.