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In December 2019, Ceenu Jebaraj's three-year-old daughter was excited at the thought of going to school in a few months.
But by the time her classes were scheduled to begin, India had entered into a national lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Even when the lockdown was eased months later, schools remained closed across the country. Some states attempted to open educational institutions over the past two years, but successive waves thwarted their efforts.
Ms Jebaraj's daughter, now five, has logged into Zoom for over 600 days to attend what she has come to know as school. She is…
The Serum Institute of India has said it will provide a Covid 19 vaccine for children as young as three years of age within the next six months.
Chief executive Adar Poonawalla said on Wednesday that his company’s Covovax, the Indian version of the US-based based Novavax vaccine for children, is under clinical trial and will be made available next year.
The institute, based in the western city of Pune, was one of the first vaccine makers…
"India's brutal second wave has impacted children across the country. According to India's Child Rights Commission over 1700 children have been orphaned since the beginning of the pandemic. 577 lost their parents between April 1 and May 25 this year," says CNN. In this video, "CNN's Vedika Sud speaks to the eldest sister-- now the primary caretaker of a family of seven siblings who lost their mother and then their father to the brutal second wave."
This article from the Indian Express shares the stories of very young children in the state of Punjab, India who have been orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Details accessed by The Indian Express from the Health Department, which has been sending this information to the social security department for the state, revealed that till date 28 children have been orphaned after loss of both parents in eight out of 22 districts of the state. Rest of the districts are still updating their records," says the article. "Out of these 28 children, nine are between 3 to 10 years of age, while 14 children…
"The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has directed States and union territories to submit data of all children, who have been orphaned or have lost one of their parents to Covid-19," says this article from Big News Network. "The portal, created to digitally monitor and track children in need of care and protection, has been extended for use amid the pandemic under the COVID-Care link."
According to this article from CNN, there are "at least 577 Indian children who lost both parents to Covid between April 1 and May 25, when India was battling its second wave of the outbreak, according to government figures." Other organizations believe that the number could be much higher and fear that many "have been missed in the official count due to the difficulty in tracing children who have lost both parents." Social workers in India "are scrambling to track them down, worried they may be vulnerable to traffickers or end up on the streets if left to fend for themselves."
The plight of so-called "COVID orphans," children who've lost one or both parents to COVID-19, "is one of the heartbreaking pandemic developments to emerge from India, which in May recorded the greatest number of deaths in one country in one month from COVID 19: over 120,000," says this article from NPR. "It's impossible at this time to come up with a realistic count of how many children are affected. But India is making an effort — and struggling to face the many issues that arise for these unfortunate children."
This article from BBC News described how the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated families across India, orphaning many children, and the measures enacted to respond to the needs of these children, including promoting foster care and adoption.
According to this article from Bloomberg, "authorities [in India] are scrambling to get a count of how many children have been abandoned, either because their parents have been hospitalized or died or because the surviving parent isn’t able to care for them." Government officials and NGOs are concerned about trafficking risks for these children.
"Orphaned children are at risk of being trafficked in smaller towns and rural areas where poverty is endemic and police presence minimal, says Jalla Lalithamma, a social activist with the People’s Organization for Rural Development,…
"Social media posts appealing for adoption of children orphaned during COVID-19 are illegal, warn experts. They appeal that citizens must dial helpline 1098 to pass on information about children in need of care and protection," says this article from The Hindu. "With deaths due to the COVID-19 on the rise, Twitter and Whatsapp have been flooded with citizens sharing details of children who have lost either both their parents or the only living parent to the disease and pleading for them to be adopted. On Monday, Chairperson Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Anurag Kundu, wrote…