COVID affected children to receive Rs 10 lacs under PM Cares: Dr Preeti Yadav

Rupnagar : Children who have lost both the parents or legal guardian or parents or surviving Parent to COVID-19 pandemic during the period starting from 11th March , 2020 and ending on 28th February, 2022 will get the financial aid of Rs. 10 lac by attaining age of 23 with benefits of various other welfare schemes.After attending the virtually national level program under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Deputy Commissioner said that objective of the Scheme is to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children in a sustained manner and enable their well being through health insurance, empower them through education and equip them for self -sufficient existence with financial support on reaching 23 years of age .She said that children were identified with the assistance of police, DCPU and civil society organisations .

Identified children were produced before the Child Welfare Committee ( CWC ). CWC after verifying the cause of death of the parents uploaded on the PM CARES for children portal with the details of children along with recommendations .Dr.Preeti Yadav further said that the portal has been developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development which can be accessed at PMCARES for children. A major key feature of the scheme is Financial Support as pro – rata amount has been credited in the account of each identified child such that the corpus for each child becomes Rs . 10 lakhs at the time of attaining 18 years of age .

For the children above 18 years of age, Rs.10 lakhs has been deposited in the Monthly Income Scheme of the post office. Children will receive a monthly stipend once they attain 18 years of age, by investing the corpus of Rs. 10 lakhs into the Monthly Income Scheme of the post office . The stipend will be credited to the Post Office Savings Bank Accounts of the children.Children above 18 years will receive stipend till they attain 23 years of age. Children would receive an amount of Rs . 10 lakh on attaining 23 years of age . Ex – gratia of Rs.50,000 per deceased parent from State Disaster Response Fund has been provided to children as per directions of MHA.

District Magistrates with the assistance of CWC have taken steps to rehabilitate the child within her / his extended family , relatives , kith or kin 4229 children are staying with their relatives . In cases where the relatives / extended family is not available / not willing / not found fit by CWC , or the child is not willing to live with them , the child has been placed in age appropriate and gender appropriate Child Care Institution ( CCI ) .There are 116 children living in CCIs . iii . All siblings have been kept together . iv . Financial support as prescribed for non – institutional care under the central or State scheme has been provided to the children , as per the eligibility under the relevant scheme . V. Under Child Protection Services ( CPS ) scheme ( now Mission Vatsalya ) , of the Ministry of Women & Child Development , children staying with relatives were receiving Rs.2000 / – per month which has been revised to Rs.4000 / – per month w.e.f. 1 April 2022 . vi . For children staying in Child Care Institutions ( CCIS ) , the maintenance grant is given to CCIs by the Government for the same . C.
Assistance for School Education i ) Admission in the nearest KV or Private school as a day scholar – fees as per the RTE norms would be given from the PM CARES . ii ) iii ) 6 supernumerary seats in all KVs have been reserved for these children .

PM – CARES will also pay for expenditure on uniforms , textbooks and notebooks . iv ) Admission in any Central Government residential school e.g. , Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya ( KGBV ) , Sainik School , Navodaya Vidyalaya etc. are being facilitated . ( v ) Scholarship of Rs . 20,000 / – per annum is being provided to school going children of class 1-12 under the scheme of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment . Assistance for Higher Education : ( 1 ) Eligible children are receiving Swanath Scholarship of Rs . 50,000 / – per child per annum for technical education . ( 11 ) Children are receiving a KARMA Scholarship for skill training . ili ) 2 supernumerary seats in Polytechnic institutions have been created for these children . Similarly Higher Education Institutions have been directed by UGC to create supernumerary seats to accommodate these children . iv ) Children are being assisted in obtaining education loans for professional courses / Higher Education in India . v ) Interest on the educational loan will be paid by the PM CARES . Health Insurance : All children have been enrolled under Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana ( PM – JAY ) with a health insurance cover of Rs . 5 lakhs per annum per child.