Kakinada: Covid19 virus played havoc with many families, snatching both parents of some children and rendering them orphans. In some cases, one of the parents is gone. If the deceased happens to be the breadwinner or mother, the future of the children would be bleak.
Officials identified 17 children who have become orphans by losing their both father and mother while 206 children became semi-orphans by losing either their mother or father. Covid19 also belied the hopes and dreams of parents about their children.
The state government has announced '10 lakh to each orphan kid. The amount will be deposited in the name of the orphaned child when he or she attains age 25. The guardian can avail the interest money to educate and help shape the future such kids.
Parents of an 11-year-old girl wanted to see her daughter as doctor. But, her father Vaddi Babji (lorry driver) and mother Achutha Kumari of Thimmapuram have died of Covid19, leaving their daughter an orphan.
“I will look after my grand-daughter till I am alive,” said Babji’s father Vaddi Subba Rao. East Godavari district collector D Muralidhar Reddy told the girl that she would be a doctor and the government would help her get good education.
When relatives brought two boys, five-year-old and two-year-old, to the Collectorate, even some of the officials were in tears. Their father Peruvali Rajesh was working as a security guard in a paper mill at Rajamahendravaram. He had shifted his family to Konthamuru village from Gokavaram for the education of his two sons. But he and his wife Rani died of Covid19.
His brother P Kumar Babu, a painter, is looking after the two kids. Muralidhar Reddy said that these two kids will be given Rs.10 lakh each for their education and their future career.
Meanwhile, the women and child welfare department has issued an advisory to local officials to pay Rs.500 for semi-orphan children under the sponsorship programme. However, the semi-orphan parents requested the government to provide a sum of Rs.5 lakh each and deposit the amount to their kid’s accounts for their future.
ICDS officer Venkat said the department is making all arrangements for the welfare of the orphans and semi-orphans. ICDS is processing necessary documents of such kids and their parents for the aid scheme.
