Between 1 April 2020 and 5 June 2021, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) told the Supreme Court in an affidavit, 30,071 children had either lost both parents, or one, or been abandoned. Of these, 23,147 had lost one parent and were living with the sole surviving parent, 3,138 with extended family and 2,409 with a guardian. Only 928 of these children, 3.1%, had been institutionalized at children homes, shelters and orphanages. These figures are an underestimation, given that official numbers of the dead have been severely under-counted. The catastrophic second wave saw a surge of untested, undocumented and unmonitored infections and deaths particularly in rural India where 800 million, or 65% of the population lives.
Namita Bhandare, 'Why The Pandemic Is A Child Rights Emergency In India', Article 14
