More than 1.5 million children in 21 countries, including 1,19,000 from India, lost their primary and secondary caregivers to Covid-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published in The Lancet. The study funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), stated that 25,500 children in India lost their mother to Covid-19 while 90,751 lost their father and 12 lost both their parents.

The study estimates that 1,134,000 children lost a parent or custodial grandparent due to Covid-19. Of these, 10,42,000 children lost their mother, father or both. Most lost one, not both parents. Overall, 1,562,000 children are estimated to have experienced the death of at least one parent or a custodial or other co-residing grandparent (or other older relative), the NIH said in a media release.