The story so far: In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a PM CARES for Children scheme to support children who lost their parents or a primary caregiver to the COVID-19 pandemic between March 11, 2020, and February 28, 2022. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released benefits under the scheme and reiterated the Centre’s commitment to providing a monthly stipend from the age of 18 years, a health cover of Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat and a lump sum of Rs 10 lakh when a child turns 23 years old. “If someone needs an education loan for professional courses or higher education, then PM CARES will help in that too,” the PM said at the virtual event.
The PM said arrangements are in place to provide Rs 4,000 every month to these children through other schemes for their daily needs. He also announced a scholarship of Rs 20,000 per annum for the students of Classes 1-12.
As of June 1, nearly 4,350 of the 9,042 who applied have benefitted from the PM CARES for Children Scheme.
More than 1.5 lakh children were orphaned, lost a parent or abandoned during the COVID-19 pandemic, as per the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This figure included children who lost their parent to causes other than COVID-19 as well, according to a statement released by the ministry earlier this year. This was in response to a report in The Lancet which estimated that 19 lakh children in India lost either a parent or a primary caregiver due to COVID-19.
What is the PM CARES for Children scheme?
Soon after India went into lockdown in March 2020 to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, PM Narendra Modi announced a central fund to provide relief to those affected by emergencies like the pandemic. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or the PM CARES Fund, was registered as a Public Charitable Trust under the Registration Act, 1908.
Even as the Opposition and activists questioned the transparency of donations received by the PM CARES Fund, the government launched the PM CARES for Children scheme a year later to support children who lost their parents to coronavirus between March 11, 2020 and February 28, 2022.
Eligibility: As per the scheme guidelines, children who lost both parents, a surviving parent, legal guardian, adoptive parents or a single adoptive parent between March 11, 2020 and February 28, 2022 due to the pandemic are entitled to the benefits. The child should have been below 18 years of age on the date of death of the parents.
Source of funds: The Ministry of Women and Child Development, which is responsible for the scheme in coordination with States and District nodal agencies, coordinates with the PM CARES Fund for the release of funds to District Magistrates. The DMs then transfer funds to the accounts of each beneficiary.
Guidelines for the Scheme
Guidelines for the PM CARES for Children scheme were published by the Ministry in October 2021. The main features include:
Financial assistance: A corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age. From this corpus, the child will get monthly financial support or a stipend for daily needs from the age of 18, for the next five years. On attaining the age of 23 years, the child will receive the corpus as a lump sum amount for personal and professional use.
As per the PM’s latest announcement, Rs 4,000 will be provided every month to these children through other schemes for their daily needs and a scholarship of Rs 20,000 per annum will begiven for students of Classes 1-12. They are also eligible for the Karma Scholarship for skills training, the Swanath Scholarship for Technical Education, and a scholarship of Rs 2.5 lakhs per year for studying in higher education institutions (IITs, IIMs) and an ex gratia amount of Rs 50,000.
Education: Those under 10 years of age get admission to the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or a private school. If the child takes private school admission, PM CARES will give fees as per Right to Education norms. The scheme will also take care of uniforms, textbooks and notebook expenditure.
Those between 11 and 18 years of age are eligible for admission in central government residential schools such as Sainik Schools and Navodaya Vidyalayas. Children will be assisted in obtaining education loans for professional courses or higher education in India as per existing education loan norms. The interest on these will also be paid by PM CARES.
Alternatively, beneficiaries may receive scholarships from various national schemes run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Department of Higher Education. They will avail of these through the National Scholarship portal.
Health cover: Under PM CARES, all children are to be enrolled as a beneficiary under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme (PM-JAY) with a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs. PM CARES will pay the premium amount until the child is 18 years old. The PM further stated that beneficiaries will get “emotional counselling through the Samvad helpline for psychological and emotional help”.
How many have benefitted so far?
Eligible children can be registered under the PM CARES for Children scheme on pmcaresforchildren.in. As of June 1, 9,042 applications were received from 611 districts of 33 States/UTs. Of them, 4,345 applications were approved, the portal shows.
The maximum number of applications under the scheme came from Maharashtra — of the 1,434 submitted, 790 were approved. Meanwhile, at least 1,547 children from Rajasthan were registered on the portal, but only 206 were approved as beneficiaries so far.
The controversial PM CARES Fund
The PM CARES Fund, which is the parent source of funds for the PM CARES for Children scheme, has been mired in controversy since its inception in 2020. From time to time, opposition leaders, experts and activists have questioned the transparency of donations and its use of the PM’s name, photo, the national flag, emblem and the ‘gov’ domain.
Although the PM is the Chairman (ex-officio) of the fund and the Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance are the fund’s trustees, the Centre has maintained that it is not a Government of India fund and isn’t under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that a third of the amount collected by the PM CARES Fund from its inception until March 2021 remained unspent. The audit report showed that the PM CARES Fund collected ₹10,990 crore between March 2020 and March 2021, but only spent ₹3,976 crore during the 2020-21 financial year. The Fund had an unspent balance of over Rs 7,000 crore. After the audit report was made public , Congress’ Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the PM, quipping “PM Lies.” Several political parties followed suit.
On Monday, as Mr. Modi released benefits under the PM CARES for Children scheme, opposition leaders once again trained their guns at the Prime Minister over the Fund. They questioned him over his announcement that PM CARES Fund will “help” children get a loan for higher studies.
“PM CARES Fund is a Special Purpose Vehicle for PM Image Repairs. Can’t invest in our youth with scholarships? Instead, hand them down loans from coerced donations. Atrocious!” tweeted Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader Jairam Rakesh.
