Catalyst for Social Change has been working with children in shelter homes in Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. “With schools shut and no visitors dropping in due to the lockdown, children are feeling listless and anxious. So, we are engaging with them through digital activities,” says Yagnaraman

The Union Ministry for Women and Child Development (WCD) wrote to the health ministry suggesting that a column be added to the hospital admission form seeking details of a chosen person to whom children should be handed over in the eventuality that both parents don’t recover. The letter, signed by WCD secretary Ram Mohan Mishra, addressed to MoHFW secretary Rajesh Bhushan requesting that  MoHFW issue directives to Covid-19 care centres through the state health departments, and that hospitals can intimate the child welfare committees in case the death of one or both parents occurs. On Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the Delhi government will bear the cost of educating and bringing up children who have lost both their parents to Covid-19.

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Adoption requests, however well-intentioned, cannot be entertained given that there is a process in place nationally under the Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act) that must be followed before anybody can assume guardianship of the child, says Anandhi Yagnaraman, CEO of Catalyst for Social Action (CSA), a not-for-profit organisation that works in holistic childcare. Yagnaraman is working with other NGOs to put together a ready reckoner for the common man to understand what needs to be done in such situations. She admits there is a deluge of confusing messages on social media at the moment. “The first thing we are telling people is to call the 1098 helpline if you find a child in distress. The second option is to reach out to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in your district or the District Child Protection Unit, which is the body to notify in such cases.” According to Yagnaraman, efforts have to be made to reach out to extended family members of the child in order to place it in a familiar environment, at least initially. “We have come across instances wherein community members have mobilised to take care of the child for the initial period till the government agencies figure a way out.” 

Anandhi Yagnaraman, CEO, Catalyst for Social Action

Havovi Wadia is the CEO of Save The Children India (STCI). She says the ‘adoption offering’ of children that we are witnessing on social media amounts to trafficking. Her team, in collaboration with the CWC, launched a helpline in Maharashtra to address the issue. Over the past five days, they have received 150 calls. Of these, only four pertained to children who have been orphaned. Those calls have now been directed to the child protection units of the districts they fall under. STCI is also assisting with home investigation. “When a child is brought in front of the child welfare committee, s/he is asked about his or her home, circumstances, etc. Sometimes, the committee also requests an investigation of the child’s home context.” Wadia says her team is closely working with these committees, who are struggling too given that some of their members are grappling with the infection. 

Meanwhile, District Welfare and Child Welfare Officer, Dilip Hivrale, tells mid-day that his team has been identifying vulnerable families in Maharashtra, where parents have tested Covid-19 positive, with the help of village-level child protection committees and rendering all the help that is needed. “The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, guarantees protection to these children. We have a robust infrastructure in place in Maharashtra for the same. In fact, there are 39 CWC cells operating in 36 districts of Maharashtra. Such children are—depending on the case—admitted to a bal gruha or child care institutes, where the parenting responsibilities fall on the government.” He says the idea is to ensure that no child  under 18, who does not have an immediate legal guardian after the passing of their parents, slips through the system. 

Harish Iyer has launched a petition on Change.org to extend CARA guidelines to make it possible for single people and live-in couples of all genders, to adopt kids

In India, the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is the statutory body of the WCD  ministry, which functions as the nodal agency for adoption, and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions. Since desperate times call for deploying prompt affirmative steps, Iyer has launched a petition (www.change.org/parentsareparents) to extend CARA guidelines to make it possible for unmarried persons of all genders and sexes, live-in couples of all genders and sexes, and people who identify as sexual or gender minorities, to adopt children affected by Covid-19. To adopt a child in India, a Prospective Adoptive Parent (PAP) has to upload their application for adoption and relevant documents on CARA’s website. A home study of the PAP by a social worker of a Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA), is then conducted, and uploaded on the website. If approved, the prospective parents are supposed to “reserve” a child within 48 hours. The SAA then matches the child with the prospective parent within a period of 20 days. 

“I understand that CARA has guidelines for verification. My point is, follow the same process and enable queer, live-in and single people also to adopt children,” says Iyer. 

The grim circumstances have also prompted actress  Pallavi Joshi and her producer husband Vivek Agnihotri to offer counselling sessions, headed by experts, for children orphaned due to Covid-19. The couple runs I Am Buddha Foundation, through which it has been helping individuals from the film fraternity affected by the pandemic. “These counselling sessions are aimed at children and young adults who are bearing the emotional brunt of having lost one or both parents in the pandemic,” says Joshi. For this, the couple has tied up with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), an Indian statutory body that works under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Agnihotri says they have roped in a panel of psychologists to offer their expertise. The sessions are conducted under supervision. “We are also looking at children whose families are in quarantine. Sometimes, extended families are at a loss of how to deal with a child who is going through emotional upheaval. There is the tendency to experience rage and anxiety because they are being looked after in foster care,” he adds. 
 
Meanwhile, 20k people have signed Iyer’s petition in the last eight days.  He believes that by humanely extending adoption policies, India will be able to join the league of several progressive nations that have done so to include everyone on the sole criteria that they will be able to provide a safe and promising future for a child.

1098
The helpline number to call if you know of a child in distress in the pandemic