Bhubaneswar: This deadly Covid-19 pandemic has claimed millions lives by making several children orphan. Children are the worst sufferers of Covid-19 in the last 14 months. Across the country there are about more than 15 lakhs children have lost their parents, family members or relatives. One of the world’s most reliable journals, The Lancet has published that in India 1, 19000 children have lost their parents due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are 1,90,000 children who have lost any one of both their parents. In the initial 14 months when the pandemic started to spread, there are 15 lakhs children who became orphan in around 21 countries including India, as per the data published by The National Institute of Drug Abuse and The National Institute of Health Survey. According to the report of Lancet Journal, Due to Covid-19, there are 2,5,500 children who have lost their mothers, 90,751 have lost their fathers and 12 children have lost both their parents in India. India comes in the second position after Brazil and Mexico in this confront. This virus has orphaned around 1, 40,000 in Mexico and 1,30,000 children in Brazil respectively. Director of National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Nora Volkow has stated, the government should take proper required actions to protect the rights of these orphaned children before they face any adversaries. They may get into any addictions such as alcohol or drugs. Till now, the government of India gas announced to secure the education of these children but the major concern is their psychological aspects. As they have lost their parents, it is pertinent to balance their psychological wellbeing by providing proper care, and security therefore they won’t get into depression.

If this aspect is not taken care of adequately then they would be unable to avail the grants and facilities provided by the government for their benefit. According to a report by the Washington Center for Global Development, “Around 50 lakh people have died in the Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 to 2021 across the world. To justify the data, the report further says that in India it is often noted that there are about 4 lakh people dying in one day. In the first wave of the pandemic it is reported that about 20 lakh people had died in India.  As per the Centre for Disease Control, 99 percent of people who died in the pandemic were not at all vaccinated.

By  Dr. Sarmistha Kabi
e-mail: sarmistha.kabi@gmail.com

-OdishaAge