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PM CARES Scheme for Children

  • 23 Feb 2022
  • 5 min read

For Prelims: PM CARES Scheme for Children, Ayushman Bharat Scheme,PM e-VIDYA, Manodarpan, Bal Swaraj Covid-Care, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Expenditure,

For Mains: Impact of Covid-19 on children, steps taken in this direction, Issues Related to Children, Education, Government Policies & Interventions

Why in News?

Recently, the Centre has extended the PM Cares for Children Scheme till 28th February 2022, which was earlier valid till 31st December 2021.

What is the ‘PM-CARES for Children’ Scheme?

  • About:
    • The scheme was launched on 29th May, 2021 with the aim to support children who lost both or surviving parent(s), legal guardian/adoptive parents or 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 abandoned (488) taking the total to 1,47,492.
      • In the gender-wise break-up, out of the 1,47,492 children, there are 76,508 boys, 70,980 girls and four transgender.
    • The objective is to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children in a sustained manner, enable their wellbeing 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:
    • Corpus of Rs. 10 Lakh:
      • The scheme offers a corpus of Rs. 10 lakh to each of these children from the PM CARES fund.
      • This corpus will be used to give a monthly stipend from 18 years of their age, for the next five years and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use.
    • Education to the Children:
      • The education expenses of younger children are supported by way of admission to Kendriya Vidyalayas and private schools up to higher secondary level.
      • These children are also supported during their higher education through either a scholarship equivalent to the tuition fees or educational loans where the interest on the loan will be paid by the PM-CARES fund.
    • Health Insurance:
      • 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 till a child turns 18.

What is the PM-CARES Fund?

What are the other Children Related Initiatives Taken by the Government During Covid?

  • Bal Swaraj Covid-Care:
    • The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has devised an online tracking portal “Bal Swaraj (Covid-Care)” for children in need of care and protection.
    • This has been created with a purpose for online tracking and digital real time monitoring mechanism of children who are in need of care and protection.
  • PM e-VIDYA:
    • On 17th May, 2020, a comprehensive initiative called PM e-VIDYA was initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan which unifies all efforts 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 objective of protecting the education of children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Manodarpan:
    • It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.

Source: PIB

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