Thread by @barandbench

Justice L Nageswara Rao led bench of #SupremeCourt to hear application concerning children orphaned due to #COVID19 pandemic

The application is in the #suomotu matter regarding prevention of COVID-19 in child care institutions across the country

Centre was earlier asked to provide details of a scheme recently announced under PM Cares Fund to ensure that children who lost their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic will be benefitted
#PMCaresFund
#SupremeCourt

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Hearing commences.

Court says it will give more time to Union of India to give modalities regarding implementation of PM Cares Fund for orphaned children.

Will deal with it after vacation.

Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agrawal says identification of children is the key.

In this regard, Amicus flags some issues wrt Tamil Nadu.

#COVID19

Agrawal says TN may expedite the process of identifying children who have lost parents to Covid-19.

#COVID19 #TamilNadu

Joseph Aristotle, counsel for TN, says there is a scheme in which child who lost both parents will get Rs 5 lakh and child who lost one parent will get Rs. 3 lakh.

State will also take care of education till undergrad level.

#COVID19

Amicus: a large number of children are in private schools.

Justice Rao: see telangana, most of them are in private schools and no one in govt school and in Hyderabad.. Karim nagar, mehboob nagar, many are in govt school. more data has to be collated

Amicus: those who are in govt school the education officer has to ensure that the child continues in school. if difficulty in attending then care has to be taken, child can get over the loss by attending school.

Amicus Curiae: If child is of school going age and not attending then they must be enrolled.

Justice Aniruddha Bose: right now there are 30,000 children and it might go up. there needs to be dedicated monitoring. Child Welfare Committee has to form panels and unlike JJ Act prescribes.
#supremecourt

Amicus: NGOs have raised the issue of preservation of properties of the parents of children who have lost both parents. relatives may take advantage of the insurance scheme, properties etc which the child itself may not be aware of.

Amicus:now for children who have lost the earning parent. in Maharashtra, such numbers are of 6,000 children. There are sponsorship schemes and some states have schemes for widows. States have a consensus that children may be produced before CWC and 4,000 to be provided per child

Gaurav Agarwal: It has to be seen if such an amount should be higher for a girl child.
#supremecourt

Justice Rao: we are in the initial stage of identifying the children. All the states have difficulty in accessing the Bal swaraj portal. as of now what we want details of the children are uploaded and cwc is initiated. CWC recommendations will be taken up next time

ASG KM Natraj: we are concerned with Delhi as they are not uploading the details.

Adv Chirag Shroff: we are facing difficulty compared to other states as solely depend on CWC data. in other states departments provide date to district magistrates and thus more comprehensive data

Justice Rao: there are states which has formulated task force with police, district magistrate etc. you can do this. Now covid numbers are less so you can concentrate on this. as and when you collect data upload details on NCPCR website, provide food and shelter too.

ASG: The other state is State of West Bengal which has not uploaded data?

Justice Rao: who is the Advocate on record for West Bengal?

Adv Sayandeep: there are 2 difficulties being faced.

Justice Rao: you have seen the order passed by us on June 1. we said gather information on children orphaned post March 2020 and upload details. so there is no confusion. other states have understood so don't say you have not understood this simple order

ASG: A lot of states are revealing the details of these children which they cannot do. Every child in this 30,000, one counsellor has to be appointed at district level so that they are counselled

Justice Rao: what about illegal adoption?

ASG: It has to be as per law

Adv Shobha Gupta: there are posts on social media that state that children are there for adoption so please call on this number. This was found to be illegal and fake. Adoption without resorting to CARA is not legal and police has to take immediate action.

Gupta: there needs to be wide publicity given to such adoption guidelines.
#supremecourt

Adv Sachin Patil: We should be provided a dashboard at state level so that we can update the data in Balswaraj portal. We have identified 7,000 children. but to complete 6 stages..

Justice Rao: please contact ASG Natraj. He is saying states with more children can have dash board

AAG UP Garima Prashad: vacancies of CWC is completed in 72 district out of the 75 in UP.

Justice Rao: we can have this matter in second or third week of July and hear all states. meanwhile all states please take steps to alleviate the concerns of the orphans. we will upload the order

#supremecourt