The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Central Government more time to appraise the court regarding the modalities of the recently launched ‘PM CARES for Children‘ scheme.
The PM Cares for Children scheme was launched for the welfare of children orphaned by Covid 19 disease.
National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recently stated that the governments in certain states and union territories are not cooperating. These states are yet to provide the latest data on the number of children who have lost their parents due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
The scheme includes various measures such as –
• including providing a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of ₹10 lakh when the beneficiary child turns 18 years old. The fixed deposits will be opened in the names of such children.
On June 1, the Supreme Court had asked the Central Government to provide information on the ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme, launched on May 29 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It had also directed states to appoint nodal officers to appraise it on identification and welfare measures for such children.
Prime Minister announced that all children who have lost both parents or guardian due to #COVID19 will be supported under ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme. Such children to get a monthly stipend once they turn 18 and a fund of Rs 10 lakh when they turn 23 from PM CARES: PMO
— ANI (@ANI) May 29, 2021
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the NCPCR, told the Supreme Court bench on Monday that it was facing difficulties with West Bengal and Delhi, who are not uploading the data of such children on ‘Bal Swaraj’.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre also stated that they are in consultation with states and ministries to work out the modalities of the ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme.
“We need some more time to appraise the court about the modalities of the scheme as the consultation is still going on. We have made district magistrates directly responsible for the children who have been abandoned or have been orphaned,” Bhati commented.
In an earlier affidavit, the NCPCR informed that as per the data given by states so far, 9,346 children have either lost both or one of their parents to the deadly virus.
As many as 1,742 children have lost both of their parents and 7,464 have lost one of the parents, the child rights body had said.
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