Context
Recently, the Prime Minister has released benefits under the PM Cares for children scheme that supports those who lost their parents during Covid-19 pandemic.
About the scheme
- The PM CARES for Children Scheme was launched in 2021.
- The scheme has been launched for support & empowerment of Covid affected children.
- Under this Scheme, an initiative was started in Feb 2022 to provide financial assistance to support such children who have lost both the Parents or legal Guardian or Adoptive Parents or Surviving Parent to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Accordingly, a new Scheme was formulated for the purpose namely; SCHOLARSHIP FOR PM CARES CHILDREN as a Central Sector Scheme.
- Under the Scheme Scholarship allowance would be ?20,000/- per child per annum which will comprise monthly allowance of ?1,000 per month and Annual academic allowance of Rs. 8,000 to cover the entire school fees, cost of the books and uniform, shoes and other educational equipment.
- The Scholarship will be disbursed through DBT to the Children from Class 1std until they pass out the 12 std Class.
Key-features
- A corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child: 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.
- School Education: For children under 10 years: Admission will be given in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
