At least 56 children in Bengal lost both parents or caregivers to Covid.
Over 6,800 lost one parent or caregiver.
These are official figures. The real figures could be far higher.
Many of these children still require psychological, social or financial help to cope with the tragedy.
“In Bengal, between March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic started, and December 2022, when it had almost waned, we had 56 children who lost both parents or caregivers. There are 6,844 children whose one parent or caregiver died,” said an official in the state’s department of women and child development and social welfare.
Caregivers refer to those who were bringing up the children whose one or both parents had died before the pandemic.
“Of the 56, there are a couple of children who have still not found a family and are at registered childcare institutions. The rest are with their extended families,” said the official.
The children are between three months and 17 years old. Some of them have grown up in other states and had to relocate to Bengal after their parents’ death and are staying with extended families, said the official.
Child rights activists said the number could be more because in many cases, it was not proven that the deaths were because of Covid.
Many of these children require social support from the department despite staying with extended families.
“There were issues like getting them enrolled in school. We had to help them get admitted,” said the official.
Mental trauma of losing parents, anxiety about the future and the longing to return to their parents’ house are some issues these children are dealing with.
“There are many children, some of them grown-up, who want to return to their actual homes where they used to stay with their parents before the pandemic. Our counsellors try to explain to them that it is no longer possible to return because there is no one in their old homes. They find it extremely difficult to cope with the new environment,” said the official.
Some of the children are anxious about whether they would be able to pursue higher studies now that they are dependant on extended families.
“These children need regular counselling. All the 56 are receiving financial aid from the PM Cares Fund,” said the official.
Child rights activists said there should be more clarity from the central government so a child who has lost both or one parent is eligible for financial help from the PM Cares Fund. A proper supervision mechanism across the country needs to be in place, they said.
“Does a child have to have lost both parents to be eligible for the benefit? There are several social and psychological issues faced by these children that need to be addressed,” Enakshi Ganguly, co-founder and former co-director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, told The Telegraph.
“There is a lack of clarity about which children are the beneficiaries and who are entitled to financial help. In many cases, the parents or caregivers who died during the pandemic did not reach the hospital and receive proper healthcare. So, there is no proof that they died of Covid,” said Ganguly.
“The number of children getting financial assistance is far less compared to the actual number of children affected,” she said.
Ganguly demanded a “proper oversight mechanism by the Union government to address social and psychological issues faced by them”.
According to a Lancet study, more than 1.9 million children in India have lost one parent or caregiver during the Covid pandemic. The Union health ministry had challenged such studies saying they were flawed, speculative and based on unproven assumptions.