<p>The Supreme Court Friday directed the state authorities to immediately identify children orphaned during the Covid-19 pandemic and provide them relief, observing it cannot even imagine how many suffered.</p>.<p>It asked state governments to understand the agony of children starving on the streets and directed district authorities to take care of them without waiting for any further order.</p>.<p>A vacation bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose directed district administrations to identify the orphans in their areas and upload their data on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) website by Saturday evening.</p>.<p>The direction came on an application filed by amicus curiae Gaurav Agrawal in the pending suo motu case. He sought identification of orphaned children due to Covid-19 to provide them immediate relief.</p>.<p><strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/rahul-gandhi-blames-pm-modis-gimmicks-for-second-wave-of-covid-19-dubs-pm-event-manager-990997.html" target="_blank">Rahul Gandhi blames PM Modi's 'gimmicks' for second wave of Covid-19; dubs PM 'event manager'</a></strong></p>.<p>The bench said state governments must inform it of the position of these children and the steps they have taken.</p>.<p>“We have read somewhere that in Maharashtra over 2,900 children have lost their one or both the parents due to Covid-19. We don’t have an exact number of such children. We cannot even imagine how many such children in this large country have got orphaned due to this devastating pandemic,” the bench said.</p>.<p>The top court noted that the Centre has already issued an advisory to the concerned authorities for the protection of children, who have lost their parents due to Covid-19.</p>.<p>“There is an obligation on the part of the authorities to ensure such children in need are taken care of,” the bench said, while referring to various provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court Friday directed the state authorities to immediately identify children orphaned during the Covid-19 pandemic and provide them relief, observing it cannot even imagine how many suffered.</p>.<p>It asked state governments to understand the agony of children starving on the streets and directed district authorities to take care of them without waiting for any further order.</p>.<p>A vacation bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose directed district administrations to identify the orphans in their areas and upload their data on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) website by Saturday evening.</p>.<p>The direction came on an application filed by amicus curiae Gaurav Agrawal in the pending suo motu case. He sought identification of orphaned children due to Covid-19 to provide them immediate relief.</p>.<p><strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/rahul-gandhi-blames-pm-modis-gimmicks-for-second-wave-of-covid-19-dubs-pm-event-manager-990997.html" target="_blank">Rahul Gandhi blames PM Modi's 'gimmicks' for second wave of Covid-19; dubs PM 'event manager'</a></strong></p>.<p>The bench said state governments must inform it of the position of these children and the steps they have taken.</p>.<p>“We have read somewhere that in Maharashtra over 2,900 children have lost their one or both the parents due to Covid-19. We don’t have an exact number of such children. We cannot even imagine how many such children in this large country have got orphaned due to this devastating pandemic,” the bench said.</p>.<p>The top court noted that the Centre has already issued an advisory to the concerned authorities for the protection of children, who have lost their parents due to Covid-19.</p>.<p>“There is an obligation on the part of the authorities to ensure such children in need are taken care of,” the bench said, while referring to various provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act.</p>
