HYDERABAD: Noted child rights activist P Achyuta Rao became the latest casualty to the dreaded coronavirus. The founder of child rights NGO ‘Balala Hakkula Sangham’ died here on Wednesday while battling COVID-19. The 58-year-old activist has recently tested positive for the killer virus.

After being infected with COVID-19, Achyuta Rao was receiving treatment for the last eight days at a private hospital in Malakpet. As his health condition worsened a few days ago, he was put on ventilator support. The family and friends of the activists are devastated by the tragic news. He was not alone in his family to get infected with coronavirus. His elder brother and noted cartoonist Sridhar too had tested positive for COVID-19. However, much to the relief of the family, Sridhar apparently recovered from the disease and was discharged on Wednesday from another branch of the same hospital, it is learnt.

Achyuta Rao had made his name synonymous with the fight for the rights of children in Telangana and beyond. Until he fell sick, he was very proactive in taking up any case of child rights violation or abuse on his own and working for the resolution of the issues pertaining to them.

He was the honorary president of the Balala Hakkula Sangham (Child Rights Group), the entity that he founded, till his last breath. He was also a former member of the State Child Rights Commission. The activist also frequently filed petitions in various courts for justice in several cases where child rights were at stake.

Among the issues against which he took up campaigns were child marriage, sexual abuse of minors and humiliating treatment of children in schools.