Ministry of Health and Family Welfare releases procedure to protect children who have lost parents to COVID

On 14th May, 2021 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the legal procedure to be followed for helping children who have lost parents to COVID. Some of these details have been reproduced below-

“If any child is found to have lost parents to COVID, with no one to look after them, the child ought to be produced before District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) within 24 hours, excluding journey time.

The State Governments have been advised to use digital platform for interaction in exceptional cases where physical interaction is not possible in current circumstances due to COVID related restrictions.

If the Child is restored to any kind of kinship care, CWC will continue to check the well-being of the child on regular basis.

Care must be taken to protect the identity of the child to avoid undue distress to her/him, as provisioned under Section 74 of the Act.”