Maharashtra: PILs seeks relief for Covid-affected specially-abled and orphans
Two public interest litigations (PIL) have been moved in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking protection and various reliefs to over 1,450 children orphaned after their parents succumbed to the Covid-19 infection and setting up of special Covid wards in Covid care centres with specially trained medical staff to attend to visually-impaired patients and special vaccination facilities for them
The first PIL filed by Gayatri Patwardhan, a social worker from Pune through advocates Asim Sarode and Ajinkya Udane has claimed that while the state has announced various reliefs and gave assurances of taking care of children orphaned due to Covid, there was no guarantee of the authorities keeping their word, hence the PIL sought various directions for the benefit of such children.
The petition has sought to increase the grant of ?1,100 per month for children up to the age of 18 years under the Child Care Scheme and Foster Care Policy to ?5,000 per month. The petition also seeks free education for orphaned children and to start and implement Education Sponsorship Programme (ESP) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) guidelines.
The PIL also seeks directions to authorities to properly identify and prepare documents pertaining to caste certificate, birth certificate, property documents and identification records of orphaned children.
The second PIL filed by Swagat Thorat, editor of a Braille Magazine, has raised concerns over the lack of healthcare facilities for visually impaired people and seeks reliefs including special Covid-19 wards, ‘barrier-free’ hospitals with specially trained medical staff to attend them and special vaccination facilities for them. The PIL also seeks direction to the state Disability Commissioner to provide data of visually impaired people who succumbed to Covid-19 infection, so that their families can be compensated through various government schemes.
The PIL also demanded a scheme to support children and family members of visually impaired persons and increased economic support of ?5,000 per month for blind persons under Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana.
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