The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Stress on preserving links with community

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Stress on preserving links with community

By Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI, APRIL 9. Post-tsunami efforts at rehabilitation of children are attempting to keep in tune with the global stress on de-institutionalisation.

Though orphanages have been started in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Nagercoil districts to accommodate children who have lost one or both parents in the tsunami, the district administration is careful in retaining the children's link with their family and community.

As part of this larger plan, children are encouraged to treat the institution they are housed in as a residential school and go home frequently to their relatives. Home studies to evaluate security the foster home can provide have been carried out and a follow up planned to see if the child continues to be treated well. In addition, infrastructure support in terms of anganwadis will be provided.

``We want to ensure that the child is not deprived of the attention of a family, close or distant. At the same time, he/she should not be neglected by them,'' says the Nagapattinam Collector, J. Radhakrishnan. While visits to the family are encouraged, they are `controlled', with the orphanage keeping tabs on the movement of the children.

Nagapattinam has the largest number of tsunami orphans, with 250 children who have lost both parents and 858 children who have lost one parent. Only 60 of them are in the government orphanage. The others remain with their surviving parent or with members of their extended family.

Survey commissioned

The home survey was commissioned to trace every single orphan residing with his/her family or community. The Social Defence department completed the study and the details will be re-verified by revenue department personnel, he says. The list makes it easy for the administration to periodically check if the children are being treated well and not being `used' by others.

This caution becomes essential as Rs.5 lakhs is being invested in the name of each child in the bank, says the Cuddalore Collector, Gagandeep Singh Bedi. The study is a necessary tool for the district administration to ensure that the child is not exploited. Non-Governmental organisations with links at the local level are being roped in, says Mr. Bedi.

In Cuddalore, 21 children lost both parents and 158 one parent and not all of them are in the special orphanage for tsunami children. Those in the orphanage take the weekend off to visit their relatives, says the Collector. Play kits and picnics are part of the package offered to the children. Anganwadis have been built in the affected villages and children provided that little extra attention.

The official take on adoption of the children remains a strict `no-no' to prevent trafficking and abuse. Initially, members of the public badgered the administration with queries about adoption, these days more people are coming forward to sponsor children in the affected areas.

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