Amicus urges SC to direct States to take all measures to identify orphans

Amicus has urged the Supreme Court to issue appropriate directions to the state governments to take all possible measures to identify children who have lost one or both parents and upload the data on the Baal Swaraj Portal.

Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agarwal submitted before the top Court that now normalcy has been restored, therefore the state governments should take all steps to the identification of children and upload the data on the Baal Swaraj Portal.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has mentioned that it has been receiving complaints that children who have lost one or both parents after April 1 2020 have been left out of the identification process and consequently not produced before CWC and not linked with various schemes.

The NCPCR has suggested that there should be a comprehensive identification exercise conducted in relation to children who have lost both parents or a single parent due to any reason from April 1, 2020.

Amicus has also urged to consider directing all the state governments/ UTs to verify the educational status of all children who are identified so far above the age of 6 years.

Meanwhile, the NCPCR has filed an affidavit indicating that from the period 1 April 2020 till 15th March 2022, 10,600 children have become orphans and 1,47,773 have lost at least one parent. The affidavit indicates that in respect of about 97,772 children, all steps have been completed and in relation to 45,979 children, the process is still at Stage-1.

The NCPCR has also written 19,825 letters to various district authorities making various recommendations for linking the child and his/her family members to various schemes. It has stated that it has received only 920 action taken reports. NCPCR has examined the data uploaded by the state governments/UTs and has drawn the attention of the state governments to the possible interventions which would help in the rehabilitation of the children.

Amicus has also suggested various measures in a note before the court.

The top court was hearing a motu case it took about the children who are adversely affected by the pandemic by losing either one or both their parents and said that there might be "lakhs of children in street situations" in the country.The Court said that the matter will be taken up next Monday.

In an affidavit filed through advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi, NCPCR submitted that it is committed to ensuring protection of children in need of care and protection and therefore, putting all possible efforts to ensure that children from street life can be rescued, and rehabilitated and all steps should be taken in the best interest of affected children while complying with directions of this Court.

Advocate Tarini Nayak appeared for Meghalaya in the matter.

The Supreme Court had earlier asked state governments and Union Territories not to delay the process of identification and rehabilitation of street children and directed District Magistrates across the country to involve special juvenile police units (SJPUs), NGOs, and voluntary organisations to identify children on the streets.

( With inputs from ANI )