Description
GS PAPER II: Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes; Mechanisms, Laws, Institutions and Bodies constituted for the Protection and Betterment of these Vulnerable Sections
Context: Bal Swaraj, an online tracking portal of a national child rights body i.e. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), shows details of nearly 10,000 children in the country in immediate need of care and protection.
- They include children aged between zero and 17 orphaned or abandoned during the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.
- The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) informed the Supreme Court that these children ran a high risk of being pushed into trafficking and flesh trade.
- The Commission had already received several complaints of government authorities illegally transferring details of children to private entities and NGOs.
- States are asked to compile data identifying children in need of immediate care.
- District authorities are asked to immediately cater to the basic needs of food, shelter and clothes to orphaned and abandoned children.
- The district authorities are directed to upload the information of children who have become orphans after March, 2020 on the portal “Bal Swaraj”
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/covid-19-surge-nearly-10000-children-in-country-need-immediate-care-and-protection-sc-informed/article34696334.ece
