Hyderabad: Orphans cry for identity

Somajiguda: To fight for rights of orphans, City-based NGO 'Force for Orphan Rights and Community Empowerment' (FORCE) on Friday urged the government to evolve a proper definition of orphans and implement some reservations and schemes for them. During a meet held at the Press Club here, the NGO demanded the State and Central governments to provide an immediate definition. It said orphans faced many problems for getting food, shelter and education. "Many orphans have a problem that no one else can really understand. They do not even have an identity card and face an identity crisis".

S Neeraja Rani, a member of NGO said "orphans lack a social support system and constitutional safeguards. The remedy to the problem lies in a separate Act by Parliament. For the past 10 years we are fighting for orphan rights. The constitution has not given a definition to word orphan. We also visited Delhi and have given representations in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Yet no concrete action has been taken."

K Rajitha , a student of MSc II year, stated that the government should to take the issue seriously and pass a new Act for constitutional orphan rights and enable them to avail fundamental rights with necessary amenities.