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The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has informed the Supreme Court that nearly 1,01,032 children across the country have lost either their father or mother or have become orphan from April 2020 till August 23, 2021 due to Covid-19 or otherwise and classify as children in need of care and protection. In terms of states, Maharashtra tops the list with nearly 15000 of such children from the state, about 9000 from Gujarat, about 8000 from Odisha, around 7000 from Uttar Pradesh, nearly 6800 from Tamil Nadu and about 6500 from West Bengal.

NCPCR has informed this to the court in an affidavit filed in compliance of a direction of the court seeking data of children in need of care and protection since April 2020 - when the first wave of Covid-19 hit the country till now.

As per NCPCR's affidavit, the data has been compiled from the "Bal Swaraj" Portal and states that while the total number of children left in need of care and protection is 1,01,032, about 52,000 of these are boys, about 48,000 are girls and 5 are transgender. The highest number of these children are in the age group of 8-13 years. While nearly 83,000 are sheltered with a single parent, about 9000 are with a family member, and approximately 5900 with a guardian. 

8161 children across India have been orphaned, 92,475 left with a single parent. 

NCPCR has informed court that a 6-stage process has been devised incorporating the procedure laid down under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, right from identification of the child to the final orders passed by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for the care and protection of the child and providing them benefits of various government schemes formulated for their care and protection.

According to the date, almost 63,000 children are still in Stage I of the 6-Stage process -  Stage 1 of the “Bal Swaraj” Portal records the basic identification details of the child, without dwelling into details of the background and social status of the child. 

These details have been recorded in the “Bal Swaraj” Portal by the States/ UTs comprising of both categories of children, wherein the child has lost both or either of the parent to Covid-19 or otherwise from April 2020 onwards.

Case Title: Re Contagion of Covid-19 Virus in Children Protection Homes