Rs 20,000 annually to every school-going child orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic — this was one of the major promises made by the Union government as part of the PM CARES Fund. But in the financial year 2024-2025, only a mere Rs 88 lakh was released for this purpose. The amount, if divided among the 3,383 children the government listed as beneficiaries of the PM CARES for Children Scheme, would come to only Rs Rs 2,596 per child.
In fact, this Rs 88 lakh – making up 0.001 percent of the Fund’s corpus – was the only amount the Union government spent during 2024-25. By the end of FY ’25, the Fund had Rs 8,452 crore. Around 93 percent of this is kept in fixed deposits.
