The Supreme Court directed the district magistrates to complete the process of approval of applications for children, registered under the ‘PM CARES for Children’ scheme, so that those who have lost their parents or legal guardian due to the COVID-19 pandemic could get the benefit.

The apex court came out with the direction after the Centre informed it that a separate portal has been created for the scheme and as on August 21 this year, 2,600 children have been registered on the portal by 30 states and Union Territories (UTs) and out of these, 418 applications have been approved by the district magistrates.

PM CARES Fund

• In March 2020, PM Narendra Modi announced the creation of an assistance and emergency situation relief fund where people can contribute and help in the government’s fight against coronavirus.

• A public charitable trust under the name of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) has been set up keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected.

• The Prime Minister is the chairman of this trust and its members include defence minister, home minister and finance minister.

PM CARES for Children scheme

• The PM CARES for Children scheme was launched on May 29, 2021. 

• It aims to support children who have lost both the parents or legal guardian or adoptive parents or surviving parent to COVID-19 pandemic during the period starting from March 11, 2020. 

The objectives of the scheme are:

• To ensure comprehensive care and protection of children in a sustained manner.

• Enable their well being through health insurance.

• Empower them through education.

• Equip them for self-sufficient existence with financial support on reaching 23 years of age.

• The ministry of women and child development is the nodal ministry for execution of the scheme at the central level. Department of the state/UT government dealing with juvenile justice set up in the state/UT is the nodal agency at state level. The district magistrates shall be the nodal authority at district level for execution of the scheme.

Implementation of the scheme

Fixed deposit

PM CARES will contribute 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/her personal requirements during the period of higher education. On reaching the age of 23, he/she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use.

School education - for children under 10 years of age

• The child will be given admission in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.

• If the child is admitted in a private school, the fees as per the RTE norms will be given from the PM CARES.

• PM CARES will also pay for expenditure on uniform, textbooks and notebooks.

School education - for children between 11-18 years of age

• The child will be given admission in any central government residential school such as Sainik School, Navodaya Vidyalaya, etc.

• In case the child is to be continued under the care of guardian/grandparents/ extended family, then he/she will be given admission in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.

• If the child is admitted in a private school, the fees as per the RTE norms will be given from the PM CARES.

• PM CARES will also pay for expenditure on uniform, textbooks and notebooks.

Support for higher education

The child will be assisted in obtaining an education loan for professional courses / higher education in India as per the existing education loan norms. The interest on this loan will be paid by the PM CARES.

As an alternative, scholarship equivalent to the tuition fees / course fees for undergraduate/ vocational courses as per government norms will be provided to such children under central or state government schemes. For children who are not eligible under the existing scholarship schemes, PM CARES will provide an equivalent scholarship.

Health insurance

• All children will be enrolled as a beneficiary under Ayushman Bharat Scheme (PM-JAY) with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh.

• The premium amount for these children till the age of 18 years will be paid by PM CARES.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store