Centre rejected over 50% ex-gratia claims by Covid orphans

A zonal conference of states and stakeholders from western region in Mumbai was held at a hotel in South Mumbai on Tuesday and was attended by union minister Smriti Irani and others

Mumbai Of the 9,700 applications received for the ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh from PMCares to the orphaned children due to Covid, the central government approved just 4,350 applications. Of them, 790 applications are from Maharashtra, according to the information by the union women and child welfare ministry.

The central government has launched the scheme under which it deposits ₹10 lakh in the accounts of the orphaned children (PTI)

A zonal conference of states and stakeholders from western region in Mumbai was held at a hotel in South Mumbai on Tuesday and was attended by union Women and Child Development (WCD) minister Smriti Irani, minister of state Mahendra Munjpara, state WCD minister Yashomati Thakur, union secretary WCD Indeevar Pandey, state principal secretary IA Kundan and other stakeholders including NGOs working in the field of women and child welfare.

Pandey said that more than 50% of the applications were rejected as many of them were duplicate. “In many cases, the applications were done repeatedly by relatives and the children who lost their parents as well. In some cases, the rejected applications were by the children who had lost one parent, while in some cases, the parents had not died due to Covid but for other reasons like accidents,” he said.

The central government has launched the scheme under which it deposits ₹10 lakh in the accounts of the orphaned children.

Irani said that the central government has increased the allocation for women-related schemes by 14% in the union budget for the current fiscal. She said that the union government has built 11 lakh toilets. “Separate toilets for girls have been built in more than 4 lakh government schools within a year. The dropout rate among girl students earlier was 23% because of the absence of the dedicated toilets for girls,” she said.

Irani said that besides 704 One Stop Centres which are functional across the country, 300 more such centres will be opened soon. The centres are meant for the women affected by violence in private and public places. “70 lakh women have received support from state and central governments through these centres,” she said.