Indian children struck by grief, loss and guilt as many lose parents to Covid-19
- Counsellors and other groups in India are supporting a growing number of children who have become orphans or breadwinners overnight
- Others are facing mental health struggles while being confined at home, as parents fear the double-mutant Covid-19 variant will claim their children
In his first conversation with a counsellor, Alok (name changed to protect his identity) said nothing for 15 minutes. In the second call, the silence lasted 11 minutes.
Vanita Yadav, a child counsellor in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has learned to wait until her young patients are ready to engage with her.
“When he first spoke, it was not about losing his parents but about his education,” said Yadav, who is based in Lucknow city. “He had studied hard and was worried that the continued lockdown might mean the exams would be cancelled.”
During the profound trauma of India’s second coronavirus wave, Yadav has been helping children whose lives have been blighted in one way or another.
04:12
What do we know so far about the Covid-19 variants?
Their fear stems from two things, Yadav said. Firstly, more children have caught the disease in this second wave than the first. But Yadav noted that this wasn’t because children were more susceptible to the variants, but rather the absolute numbers of Covid-19 patients were simply higher than in the first outbreak.