Parents of more than 600 children died due to COVID-19 from April to May 28: Government

New Delhi, July 22: In a recent development, the Women and Child Development Ministry on Thursday said that a total of 645 children lost their parents to COVID-19 from April to May 28 this year during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani gave data on the children orphaned during the second wave of COVID-19.

According to reports, a total of 645 children lost their parents to COVID-19 from April 2021 to May 28. The highest number of such children was reported from Uttar Pradesh at 158 followed by Andhra Pradesh at 119, Maharashtra at 83 and Madhya Pradesh at 73.

The states and UTs have been jointly requested by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education to ensure continuity of education of the children who have lost their parents in the COVID-19 pandemic while accommodating them under the various schemes being run by Department of School Education and Literacy, Irani said in a written reply.

Irani further went on to say that the prime minister has announced a scheme to support the children who have lost both parents or surviving parents or legal guardians or adoptive parents due to the 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 from 18 years of age, for the next five 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," Irani said.