Amid reports estimating over 1,200 children missing from flood-hit Uttarakhand, a team of officials from Woman and Child Development Ministry and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights who visited the State on Wednesday has asked State Government to draw out a list with exact details of missing or orphaned children.
Woman and Child Development Ministry’s team led by Kushal Singh, chairperson, NCPCR and Dr Vivek Joshi, joint secretary, (WCD) that assessed Uttarakhand’s flood-hit reaches this week met Chief Minister Vijay Bhauguna and other senior officials from the State.
“There may be hundreds like the three-year-old girl who was found abandoned with multiple fractures in Gaurikund. We need to trace them and find ways to rehabilitate them. The State authorities need to take care of missing and orphaned children in the worst affected districts of Uttarakhand,” said an official from the WCD Ministry.
“Even if we needed to offer additional funds to the state for rehabilitating these children, we need to have correct figures about the number of missing children. The ministry will then dialogue with the child rights organisations and seek their necessary intervention in helping these children,” said the official.
The team also emphasised on need for State Government to take advantage of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the centre to tackle the needs of missing and orphaned children.
The team also felt that there was a need on the part of the State for better sensitisation, awareness on child rights and protection of children. The team has asked the State to submit its report on children to the Ministry at the earliest.
“It is a long and tedious process considering the enormity of the tragedy, but since children are in question, we expect the State to exercise urgency in preparing the report,” said the official.