↑Indian officials tweeted that 577 children were orphaned in 55 days. Picture according to Xinhua News Agency
In April, 5-year-old Brahan and 10-month-old brother Ash lost both parents and were orphaned. The sky of the two children collapsed, and relatives could not bear to tell Brahan the truth, only that their parents were out to work. But under the repeated questioning of the young Brahan, it is more and more difficult to conceal the truth every day, and life is becoming more and more difficult.
Eventually, the relatives decided to contact an NGO based in Delhi, India, that specializes in helping orphans. The group said it hoped someone would adopt the brothers.
What happened to the Brahan brothers is not alone. According to foreign media reports on May 31, in the second wave of the epidemic in India, such families are not uncommon, and there are more and more "new crown orphans". Child welfare workers believe that as the epidemic continues, "COVID-19 orphans" have become a problem that has plunged the entire country into a state of emergency.
Behind the 7-year-old child labor: "COVID-19 orphans" may put India in a state of emergency
In the second wave of the epidemic in India, the parents of 7-year-old boy Taren died of COVID-19. With the departure of the family's main source of income, Taren's grandfather Mohan had to work an extra job. But even then, he earns only 40 rupees (about $0.55) a day. The family's food will run out within this week, and Mohan will have to let 7-year-old Tarun go out as a child laborer.
They are not alone in this desperate predicament.
↑ Pandemic exacerbates child labour in India. Pictured according to Bloomberg
Like the Brahan brothers, 12-year-old Sonia and 7-year-old brother Amit have also become "coronavirus orphans". In the first wave of the epidemic last year, the sisters and brothers lost their father, and in April this year, they lost their mother. Today, her elderly grandmother takes care of them and refuses to send them to register for adoption despite her fears for the future of her two children.
"When I'm gone, who's going to take care of these kids?" These two children are the legacy of my son and daughter-in-law. Many people come to ask if they can adopt, but how can I give them away? She said.
India's Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Ilani, recently tweeted that at least 577 parents of children died of the new crown virus between April 1 and May 25. However, experts say that this number is difficult to reflect the size of the "new crown orphans".
In India's most populous state, Dr. Vilma, a member of the Child Welfare Committee, said at least 1,000 "COVID-19 orphans" had been identified. Verma said the actual number could be higher, as is the case across the country. She said the welfare committee had summoned police, village health workers and village chiefs to help register "COVID-19 orphans".
↑ The analysis believes that the scale of India's "new crown orphans" is worrying. Pictured according to BBC News
Anurag Khundoo, chairman of delhi's Chair for the Protection of children's rights, said the scale of the "COVID-19 orphans" problem had expanded dramatically after the second wave of the epidemic in India. According to Bloomberg, 27% of India's 1.3 billion people are under the age of 14. Given the Indian government's claim in early May that one in three people is infected with COVID-19 , it is possible to predict the scale of "COVID-19 orphans" that is undoubtedly unprecedented.
"I've never seen so many people die in a short period of time in my life – they must have left behind a lot of children under the age of 18. In this sense, this is a state of national emergency. "Kundu said.
In addition to the "new crown orphans", the children of single-parent families caused by the epidemic also need to be cared for. Kapoor, chief executive of Protsahan, a Delhi-based NGO, said the group had encountered cases where the other parent, usually the father, forced the child to perform manual labor after the death of one parent.
Kappl said Protsahan received numerous heartbreaking calls for help during the pandemic. The father of two of the children died in hospital and needed help to cremate because their mother was also infected with the new crown virus. In another family, after the mother died of COVID-19, the father completely collapsed and was unable to take care of his children for three whole days. "So we got a call from our relatives asking us to help feed the children." Kapoor recalled.
$7,000 a child: Traffickers are active under the guise of adoption
At the same time, enthusiastic posts calling for help in the adoption of these "COVID-19 orphans" have flooded social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and the hashtag #CovidOrphans (COVID-19 orphans) has even become the hottest topic on Twitter, and social media is full of photos and contact information for adopted orphans.
However, this public sharing of children's contact details and photos has raised concerns about human trafficking. Child welfare expert Srivastava told Bloomberg that while the posts were mostly well-intentioned, they inadvertently posed a danger. When children's photos and locations are shared, child trafficking networks come alive under the guise of adoption.
↑ The abundance of adoption information on the Web has raised concerns about human trafficking. Pictured according to BBC News
Kundo also warned against turning social media into a service where ill-intentioned people could pick out children. His team called a contact number on an adoption page, "and they gave a price of $7,000 for a child." We have called the police. He said.
Not only that, but there are also fears that these bereaved children will be exploited, engaged in cheap manual labor, and even sex work. Social activist Lalitama told Bloomberg that in small towns and rural areas with widespread poverty and few police forces, the risk of these orphans being trafficked is extremely high.
Lalitama said that in the small town of Murdenabelay, a small town of less than 200,000 people, her organization has documented at least dozens of violations of children's rights in the region during the second wave of the new crown epidemic, and some children have been recruited to make fake wine and transport tomatoes to the town's wholesale markets. If the breadwinner dies, some young girls may be abducted under the guise of "working in factories in nearby cities" and trafficked for sex work.
The Indian government intervened, and the trauma of losing parents was difficult to heal
In addition, india's low adoption rate for orphans makes the problem even more intractable. Between March 2019 and March 2020, only 3,351 children were adopted out of tens of thousands of Indian orphans, according to BBC News. One reason for this is that the process of legal adoption in India is very difficult and can take years to complete. In addition, in a better economic situation, some extended families may adopt orphans, but the risk of the epidemic and economic concerns have made fewer and fewer people willing to adopt.
Kundu believes that considering short-term foster care rather than adoption may help alleviate the problem. "It's a mythical story to have every child adopted," he said. Relatives can stand up. Foster care is a good idea. "The foster care system allows children to be cared for by relatives and friends without having to wait in crowded orphanages for someone to adopt them.
Experts also say the approach may help improve India's frustrating adoption rate, with more and more families likely to take the initiative to take care of the children temporarily, which could eventually prompt them to formally adopt them.
At present, the indian state governments have begun to work hard to take care of the "COVID-19 orphans". Over the weekend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced measures that all children who have lost both parents, surviving parents, legal guardians or adoptive parents due to the COVID-19 pandemic will receive financial assistance under the "PM-CARES for children" scheme, and the government will allocate around £9,852 to each child. During the period between the ages of 18 and 23, the money will be paid to the child as a monthly allowance.
However, experts say there is still a lot of work to be done. The risk of this problem is that from now on, many children may grow up without a family. And this trauma of losing a parent can have fairly long-term effects.
Red Star News reporter Xu Huan
Edited by Zhang Xun
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