The comprehensive guidelines for the PM CARES for Children Scheme have been provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. On May 29, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced complete support for children who have lost both parents due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Objectives:
The scheme's primary objective is to provide long-term comprehensive care and protection to children who have lost a parent(s) to the COVID pandemic, enabling their well-being through health insurance, empowering them through education, and preparing them for self-sufficiency with financial support when they reach the age of 23.
Eligibility:
The scheme's eligibility criteria will cover all children who have lost both parents or a surviving parent or legal guardian/adoptive parents/single adoptive parent due to the Covid-19 pandemic, starting on March 11, 2020, the date on which WHO declared and characterized Covid-19 as a pandemic, and ending in December 2021.
The scheme provides the following benefits:
a) The District Magistrate will make efforts, with the help of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), to investigate the potential of rehabilitating the child within her/his extended family, relatives, kith, or kin.
b) If the child's extended family, relatives, kith or kin are unavailable/unwilling/unfit according to CWC, or the child (aged 4 -10 years or older) is unwilling to live with them, the child should be placed in foster care after due diligence as prescribed by the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and rules made thereunder as amended from time to time.
c) If the Foster family is unavailable/unwilling/unfit by CWC, or the child (aged 4 -10 years or older) is unwilling to live with them, the child 1Beneficiary/ Beneficiaries refers to eligible child beneficiaries under the PM CARES for Children Scheme. 3 should be placed in an age- and gender-appropriate Child Care Institution (CCI).
d) Children over the age of ten who have not been accepted by extended families, relatives, or foster families, or who are unwilling to live with them, or who are living in child care institutions following the death of their parents, maybe enrolled by the District Magistrate in Netaji Subhash Chand Bose Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Eklavya Model Schools, Sainik School, Navodaya Vidyalaya, or any.
f) For non-institutional care, children shall be given financial assistance at the prevailing rates prescribed under the Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme (in account with guardian). Child Care Institutions shall provide a maintenance grant at the current rates authorized under the Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme for children in institutional care. Any provision for subsistence support under the State system may be made available to the children in addition.
Preschool and School Education Assistance:
Identified beneficiaries will receive support and assistance from Anganwadi services for supplementary nutrition, pre-school education/ECCE, immunization, health referrals, and health check-ups for children under the age of six.
For children under the age of 10:
• Admission as a day scholar shall be given in any nearby school, whether it is a government or government-aided school or a private school.
• Under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, two sets of free uniforms and textbooks would be distributed in government schools, according to the scheme criteria.
• Tuition fees in private schools are excluded under section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act.
• If a child is unable to access the foregoing benefits, the fees will be paid from the PM CARES for Children scheme in accordance with RTE guidelines.
• The program will also cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, and notebooks.
