Govt of India has announced ‘PM-CARES FOR CHILDREN’ scheme to support children impacted by the Covid-19. Explain the measures and provisions of this scheme.

Introduction:

The Government of India has announced ‘PM CARES FOR CHILDREN’ scheme to support the children who have lost both their parents or legal guardians due to Covid-19. This initiative is plausible due to the nature of the scheme and the significance of it. It can be considered as a very important step for the children who have lost their parents due to the pandemic.

Body:

As of now, there are 5 major measures that have been taken under this scheme.

  • Fixed Deposit in the name of child
  • School education: For under 10 years children
  • School education: For children of age 11 to 18
  • Support for Higher education
  • Health Insurance

The provisions of this scheme are as follows:

  • A corpus of 10 Lakh is created for each child. On reaching 18 years, the child will start getting the monthly stipend and on reaching 23 years, the corpus amount will be returned to the child.
  • The child will be admitted to the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya/ Private school (RTE norms applied). The uniform, textbook and notebook fee will be paid by PM-CARES
  • After 11 years, child will be given admission in any of the central government residential school. In case the child wants to stay with extended family it can opt for continuing in Kendriya Vidyalaya
  • Assistance will be provided for securing loans as child grows up and if it wishes to go for higher education. Suitable scholarship will be provided for the interest amount of the loan
  • Under ‘Ayushman Bharat Scheme’ such children will be provided the health insurance. The premium amount will be paid from PM CARES till it reaches 18 years of

Conclusion:

The scheme focuses on providing the education and healthcare facilities for the affected children. This seems to be a good move by the government and since there is no direct transfer of money is involved in it, there is lesser threat to the child. The implementation of the scheme once again depends upon the schools. The extended family of the child should be guided properly in order to make the scheme a success.