E-Paper
3,855 kids left orphans by Covid-19 benefitted from PM CARES for Children fund
The PM CARES fund was announced on May 29, 2021, to support children who had lost both parents or surviving parents or legal guardians or adoptive parents due to the pandemic. The scheme provides support for education and health and will create a corpus of ₹10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development told Parliament on Wednesday that 3,855 children orphaned during the Covid-19 pandemic have been approved as eligible under the ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme till now.
The Ministry shared this information in response to a question posed by CPI (M) MP John Brittas in Rajya Sabha. Brittas sought to know whether the Government or any agency has drawn up the number of children orphaned on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Responding to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani said that of the total 6,624 applications received for support under the scheme, 3,855 have been approved.
The highest number of 1,158 applications was received from Maharashtra, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 768, Madhya Pradesh with 739, Tamil Nadu with 496 and Andhra Pradesh with 479, according to data shared by Irani.
The PM CARES fund was announced on May 29, 2021, to support children who had lost both parents or surviving parents or legal guardians or adoptive parents due to the pandemic. The scheme provides support for education and health and will create a corpus of ₹10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age.
When asked what steps are being taken by the government to support the children, the ministry said it is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme namely Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme-- Mission Vatsalya under which support is provided to states and UT governments for delivering services for children in need of care and in difficult circumstances.
“As per the scheme guidelines, the quantum of sponsorship of ₹2000/- per child per month is available for Non-institutional care of children in need of care and protection and the provision for maintenance grant of ₹2160/- per child per month for children living in Child Care Institutions,” the ministry said in a written statement.
Child rights activist Bharti Ali said the number of children who have been orphaned is more than the number of applications received because people are not aware of the scheme and they don’t know how to apply.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had told the Supreme Court last month that a total of 1,42,492 children had lost their parents due to Covid-19. The NCPCR informed that the data was based on information uploaded by states and Union Territories on its ‘Baal Swaraj Portal-COVID care’.
“The problem is why are those children not applying for PM CARES? When you say the child has lost both parents, it obviously implies that the child has no support to be making such applications. The District Child Protection Unit should be doing the task of identifying and helping each child in making these applications,” Ali added.
