Free education, monthly stipend, other benifits for children who lost parents to Covid, Details here

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that all children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian/adoptive parents due to Covid 19 will be supported under ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme. The decision was taken after the Prime Minister chaired an important meeting to discuss and deliberate on steps which can be taken to support children who have lost their parents due to Covid-19.

The Prime Minister added that the measures being announced have only been possible due to the generous contributions to the PM CARES Fund which will support India’s fight against COVID-19

• Fixed Deposit in the name of the child:

The office of PM Narendra Modi said that the PM CARES will contribute through a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of ₹10 lakh for each child when the child reaches 18 years of age. The PMO said that the ₹10 lakh corpus will be used to give monthly financial support from 18-23 years of age to take care of the child’s personal requirements during the period of higher education. On reaching the age of 23 years, the child will get the corpus amount as one lump sum for personal and professional use.

• School Education: For children under 10 years

Further, the prime minister said that the child will be given admission to the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar. If the child is admitted to a private school, the fees as per the Right to Education norms will be given from the PM CARES, the PMO added. “PM-CARES will also pay for expenditure on uniforms, textbooks, and notebooks,” it added.

• School Education: for children between 11-18 years

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 or 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, text books and notebooks.

• Higher Education

The child will be assisted in obtaining an education loan for professional courses, or Higher Education in the country as per the existing Education Loan norms. The interest on this loan will be paid by the PM-CARES. As an alternative, scholarships equivalent to the tuition fees, or the course fees for undergraduate/ vocational courses as per the government’s 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, the PMO said in a statement.

• Health Insurance

All children will be enrolled as a beneficiary under Ayushman Bharat Scheme (PM-JAY) with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs. The premium amount for these children till the age of 18 years will be paid by PM CARES.

(With Inputs From Agencies)