Why in news?
Recently, the Centre government has extended the PM Cares for Children Scheme till 28th February 2022, which was earlier valid till 31st December 2021.
What is it?
PM-CARES for Children Scheme-
- This scheme was introduced on 29th May, 2021 with the aim to support children who lost both or surviving parent(s), legal guardian, adoptive parents/ single adoptive parent to Covid-19.
- The status of children in need of care and protection included orphans (10,094), lost either parent (1,36,910) and children who had been abandoned (488) taking the total to 1,47,492.
- Gender-wise- out of the 1,47,492 children, there are 76,508 boys, 70,980 girls and 04 transgender.
- Objective- The objective of the scheme is to ensure comprehensive care and protection to children in a sustained manner, 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.
Features of the Scheme-
- The scheme offers each of these children with a corpus of Rs. 10 lakhs from the PM CARES fund.
- This corpus will be used to give a monthly stipend beginning from 18 years of their age for the next five years and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will receive the corpus amount as one lump sum for personal and professional use.
- Education- Admission to the Kendriya Vidyalayas and the private schools up to the higher secondary level will help to offset the expenses of education for younger children.
- Further, these children will get support for their higher education through either a scholarship equivalent to the tuition fees or educational loans, with the interest paid by the PM-CARES fund.
- Health Coverage- All children will be enrolled as a beneficiary under Ayushman Bharat Scheme with a health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh. The premium amount will be paid by PM-CARES untill a child reaches the age of 18.
PM-CARES Fund-
- The government has formed the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) to address any kind of emergency or distress situation like the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The Prime Minister serves as Chairman of the Fund, The Fund is a public charitable trust. Other Members comprise Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
- The Fund enables micro-donations which mean a large number of people will be able to contribute with the smallest of denominations.
- It will enhance disaster management capacities and promote citizen protection research.
- Contribution to PM CARES Fund Qualifies as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Expenditure.
Other Children Related Initiatives Taken by the Government during Covid-
PM e-VIDYA-
- On 17th May, 2020, as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, a comprehensive initiative named as PM e-VIDYA was launched, which unifies all initiatives related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education.
- It was launched under the One Nation One Digital Platform with the goal of protecting children’s education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Manodarpan-
- Its goal is to help students, family members and teachers by providing psychosocial support for their mental health and well-being during Covid-19.
Bal Swaraj Covid Care-
- The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has set up the “Bal Swaraj (Covid-Care)” online tracking portal for children in need of care and protection.
- This was designed with the intention of providing an online tracking and digital real-time monitoring system for children in need of care and protection.