Heart wrenching to see survival of kids at stake, says SC on COVID devastation

COVID-19 has devastated many lives and it is “heart-wrenching” that the survival of children who lost either or both parents during the pandemic is at stake, the Supreme Court said but expressed satisfaction over schemes announced by the Centre and states to provide succor to them.

The apex court said that “satisfactory progress” has been made by the Executive in identifying children who have either become orphans or have lost one of their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘’We are glad that the UoI (Union of India) and the state governments/UTs have announced schemes to provide succor to the children in need. We have no doubt that the authorities concerned would leave no stone unturned to attend to the immediate basic needs of the crestfallen children,” said a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose.

The top court, which was hearing a suo motu matter on ‘Contagion of COVID-19 on children protection homes’, noted in its order that over one lakh children have lost either or both parents. 

“The catastrophe caused by cataclysmic COVID-19 has devastated many lives, especially children at a tender age who have lost their parents,” the bench said, adding that “it is heart-wrenching to note that the survival of so many children is at stake.” 

The court said all children have a constitutional right to free and compulsory elementary education and the State has a duty and obligation to facilitate education for children.