Amid concerns raised from multiple quarters over the fate of orphaned children during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre on Saturday announced a slew of measures including free health insurance of Rs 5 lakh to children till they turn 18 and a fund of Rs 10 lakh when they turn 23 loans for higher education, whose premiums will be paid by PM-CARES Fund.
The government will open fixed deposits in the names of such children, and the PM-CARES fund will contribute through a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each of them when he or she reaches 18 years of age.
The decisions by the Centre, under which all children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian/adoptive parents due to Covid 19 will be supported under ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme, were announced on Saturday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a key meet to deliberate on steps which can be taken to support such children.
The announcement came on the eve of the Modi government completing its 7 years since 2014, also the second anniversary of the Modi 2:0 government.
Both Congress and BJP have been vying with each other on child welfare pitch amid talk of a bigger threat to them in phase 3 of the pandemic. Sonia Gandhi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to provide free education to the children whose parents succumbed to the virus while BJP chief JP Nadda had asked party-ruled states to prepare a programme for the welfare of children, to be launched on the seventh anniversary of the Modi government.
This was in addition to carrying out Covid preventive and relief activities in one lakh villages across the country with union ministers, MPs and MLAs of BJP present in at least two villages each.
On May 28, the Supreme Court had also observed that it cannot even imagine how many children in this large country have got orphaned due to Covid-19 and directed the state authorities to immediately identify them and provide relief.
All such children will be enrolled as a beneficiary under Ayushman Bharat Scheme (PM-JAY) with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs. The premium amount for these children till the age of 18 years will be paid by PM-CARES.
"Children represent the future of the country and we will do everything to support and protect the children. In such trying times it is our duty, as a society, to care for our children and instil hope for a bright future," Modi said announcing these measures.
As per the details, PM-CARES will contribute through a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age. This corpus will be used to give a monthly financial support/stipend from 18 years of age, for the next five years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher education and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use.
Besides, the child will be given admission to the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar. If the child is admitted to a private school, the fees as per the RTE norms will be given from PM-CARES. PM-CARES will also pay for expenditure on uniform, textbooks and notebooks.
Children aged between 11-18 years, will be given admission to any Central Government residential schools like Sainik School and Navodaya Vidyalaya.
One of the suggestions of Sonia Gandhi was to provide education to such children at the Navodaya Vidyalayas, whose creation across the country she had recalled in her letter, as her husband and late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s legacy.
In case the child is to be continued under the care of Guardian/grandparents/extended family, then he or she will be given admission in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.
The child will be assisted in obtaining an education loan for professional courses and higher education in India as per the existing education loan norms but the interest on this loan will be paid by the PM-CARES.
As an alternative, a scholarship equivalent to the tuition fees/course fees for undergraduate/vocational courses as per government norms will be provided to such children under the central or state government schemes. For children who are not eligible under the existing scholarship schemes, PM CARES will provide an equivalent scholarship.