Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, by his unprecedented announcement in Kottayam that the state was adopting two orphaned siblings, has made a policy leap in orphan care.
Till Chandy made this heartfelt, instinctive decision on November 25, the orphaned children in the state were entitled to nothing more than education support and shelter in cramped badly-run children’s homes. But the siblings the state has now adopted have been given financial independence, too.
Chandy said Rs 50,000 each would be deposited in a bank account in the name of these children: the girl a nursing student and her brother a sixth standard student. He took the decision at the funeral of their mother on November 25.
The children had lost their father early. “This is perhaps the highest financial assistance offered to orphans in the state. Chandy will now do well to extend the favour to other economically backward children in need of care and protection in the state,” said J Sandhya of Human Rights Law Network.
The official machinery, however, was noncommittal when asked how the government would respond if other orphans in the state, too, sought the same level of support.
According to official figures, over 41,000 children are sheltered in 14 children’s homes and 1050-odd registered orphanages across the state. More than double this number are said to be outside this protection.
Social Justice director V N Jithendran said that the State Government was duty bound to protect all children in need of care and protection under the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act, 2000.
