The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has identified 791 women who lost their husbands to COVID-19, and it has submitted a report to the city government to ensure their rehabilitation

The Commission has also conducted a social survey of all these women to help the government in the rehabilitation process. The social survey was conducted on the grassroots level by the DCW through its Mahila Panchayat network. The figure is the cumulative number of women who lost their husbands to the virus since the start of the pandemic last year.

The Delhi government has rolled out the “Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana” under which an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 will be provided to those who have lost a family member to coronavirus. The scheme also provides for an additional Rs 2,500 pension per month if the deceased was the sole breadwinner. The social survey conducted by the DCW will increase the access of the identified women to the benefits of this scheme, it said.

The Commission is still identifying other women who were widowed during Covid pandemic and will submit additional lists to the government, it added. According to the survey, 774 (97.85% out of 791 women) have at least one child while 360 women have three to five children. It found that 30 women have over five children. From the list of identified 791 women, 734, which accounts for 92.79%, are in the age bracket of 18-60 years, while the rest are senior citizens. Nearly 191 women fall in the age group of 18-35, the survey found.

Out of the 791 women, 721 are housewives, while the rest work as domestic workers, labourers, small business owners and private and government employees.

Nearly 28.57% of the women have no source of income while almost 60% women have a monthly income of less than Rs 15,000, it found. It was also found that 597 women had not been vaccinated till the date of survey.

“The Commission strongly believes that it is very important to get these women vaccinated on priority. The Commission has recommended the government to issue an order to the district magistrates to get these women vaccinated,” the DCW said.

The commission said the scheme by the Delhi Government will come in very useful for the rehabilitation of these women and the benefits must reach them. DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said, “We got our Mahila Panchayat teams to go door-to-door to identify women who got widowed and were able to identify 791 such women. We are sending a detailed social survey report to the government so that the benefits of the scheme can be passed on to these women. Also, these women should be vaccinated on priority.”

Over 2,000 children in the national capital have lost either one or both their parents to the coronavirus, with 67 of them losing both their parents, since the pandemic outbreak in March last year, says a survey conducted by the DCPCR. According to the survey carried out by the Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), 651 children lost their mothers and 1,311 children lost their fathers to the infection.