The young lives thrown into uncertainty by the Covid-19 pandemic

Children who have lost one parent or both need more than monetary help

In Agra, seven-year-old Pintu keeps asking for his mother. His elder brother, Brijesh, 13, has no answer. Covid claimed both their parents within a span of five days. Their grandmother, a cancer patient, is looking after them, while their septuagenarian grandfather is resigned to the fact that he cannot afford to retire from his job as a security guard. Both worry about the children’s fate. They are not alone.

As the brutal second wave of the pandemic recedes across India, the government and child welfare agencies across the country are grappling with a basic question: What can be done to