PM CARES Guidelines: Free education, stipend, scholarships for COVID orphans

NEW DELHI: To support children who lost their parents to COVID-19, the Central Government has issued guidelines for the PM CARES initiative that was announced earlier this year.

Under this initiative, the government will grant such children a monthly stipend once they attain 18 years until they attain 23 years of age. The Centre will start a corpus fund of Rs 10 lakh which the student will receive at the age of 23. The ministry of women and child development will be the nodal ministry for the execution of this scheme. At the district level, the district magistrate will be the nodal authority.

The PM CARES support is applicable to children who have lost both parents or surviving parents or legal guardians or adoptive parents in the pandemic between March 11, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

The beneficiaries of PM CARES will also be covered under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, or PM-JAY, with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs, till 18 years of age, paid for by the PM CARES fund.

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On May 29, prime minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Centre will financially support children who lost both their parents due to coronavirus. Eligible children are required to register for the scheme before December 31, 2021, to avail benefits of the PM-CARES for Children Scheme. So far, the government has received 3,915 applications out of which 845 applications have been approved, PTI reported.

Education for children under PM CARES

For children below six years of age, identified beneficiaries will receive support and assistance from the Anganwadi services for supplementary nutrition, pre-school education, immunization, health referrals, and health check-up.

For children below 10 years, the Centre will ensure admission of eligible children in any nearest government, government-aided, Kendriya Vidyalaya or private school. Children will be provided uniforms, textbooks and notebooks as per Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. Those enrolled in private schools will not have to pay the tuition fees.

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Between 11 years and 18 years, children will receive assistance from the government to get enrolled in residential schools like Netaji Subhash Chand Bose Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Eklavya Model Schools, Sainik School, and Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Education loan, scholarships

The government will also provide assistance to obtain education loans for professional courses in higher educational institutes across the country. If the student is unable to avail of interest exemption offered under other Central and state government schemes, then the interest on the educational loan will be paid by the central government.

Scholarship as per the norms will be provided to the beneficiaries of the PM CARES for Children Scheme from the schemes of the ministry of social justice and empowerment, the ministry of tribal affairs, ministry of minority affairs, and the department of higher education. Beneficiaries will be assisted through the National Scholarship Portal. The scholarship awarded to the beneficiaries will be updated on the PM CARES for Children portal, the guidelines stated.