State to compile data on Covid orphans for providing help

kolkata: The state Women & Child Development & Social Welfare department will soon start identification of the COVID orphans across the state and prepare a database so that assistance can be provided for education, financial, counseling, nutrition or similar needs.

"There have been instances when a child below the age of 18 has lost both his/her parents or one of his/ her parents due to COVID-19. It is presumed that they may have landed in trouble like financial constraints, inability to bear expenses of school, psychological stress, lack of nutrition, sexual abuse or similar other problems. Once we compile the database, we will monitor them and explore avenues of support to them," Shashi Panja, minister for Women and Child Development & Social Welfare said speaking at a webinar entitled 'ICC CSR Summit', organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The district magistrates and the district social welfare officers will be executing this exercise in their respective districts. Expressing her concern about CSR funds increasingly becoming unidirectional, she said companies are expressing more interest in donating towards quantifiable hard infrastructure to the NGOs. However, there is tremendous need for CSR funds toward soft interventions that could improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries catered to by the NGOs.

"There are many interesting projects where CSR funds can be channelized-such as in educational support, social support, women empowerment, entrepreneurship, skill development, stopping human trafficking from border areas and many more", she added.She further mentioned during her speech that realizing the exigencies, apart from routine work, her department embarked on a major initiative to arrange 'safe homes' to accommodate Covid affected people seeking treatment in isolation during the second wave.