Vijayawada:Government to provide shelter to Covid orphans

The State government has decided to provide shelter to the children who became orphans due to the Covid19 pandemic in the State, said Dr Kritika Shukla, director of Juvenile Welfare department. She said in a statement here on Thursday that several children lost their parents due to Covid19 and they would be identified and provided shelter in the child care centres as per Juvenile Justice Act. She said that the toll-free numbers of 181 and 1098 are available to provide information about the orphaned children.

In case of hospitalisation of both the parents, there would be no one to take care of children and the relatives might not be in a position to provide shelter to them. The state government would provide temporary shelter to such children till the parents recovered from the disease.

She said that the members of Child Welfare Committees or the officials of the Women and Child Welfare department could be contacted to provide temporary shelter to such children.

Dr Shukla said that the district Collectors concerned have been advised to focus on such orphan children and inform the public about the toll-free numbers to provide necessary information to the government.