Govt Announces Free Education for Children Orphaned in Pandemic

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New Delhi: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the roll-out of a slew of benefits under PM Cares For Children, in a bid to support children who lost their parents to the Covid-19 pandemic. The decision was taken following a high-level review meeting chaired by the prime minister to deliberate on the impact of the pandemic on children and how to mitigate it.PM Cares will contribute through a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when they reach 18 years of age. The corpus will be used to give a monthly stipend 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, the child will get the corpus amount as a lump sum for personal and professional use. The government will also ensure free education for such children.

Children will receive assistance in getting education loan for higher education and PM Cares will pay interest on the it. All children will be enrolled for free health insurance of Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat till 18 years and the premium will be paid as part of the scheme. The PM 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.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The child 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 PM Cares.

• PM Cares will also pay for expenditure on uniform, text books and notebooks.

• 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.