The Covid-19 pandemic, which has shattered many families, has taken lakhs of lives across the planet. It made millions of children disoriented. The latest Lancet study reveals that over 1.5 million children worldwide have lost their parents and guardians due to Covid.
Over 1.5 million children in 21 countries, including 1,19,000 from India, lost their primary and secondary caregivers to Coronavirus in the 14 months from March 2020 to April 2021.
The study said that 25,500 children in India lost their mother to the virus while 90,751 lost their father and 12 lost both their parents. It believes that 1,134,000 children lost a parent or custodial grandparent because of COVID-19.
Overall, 1,562,000 children are deemed to have encountered the death of at least one parent or custodial or other co-residing grandparents.
The countries with the highest number of children who lost primary caregivers include South Africa, Peru, United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico.