Picture : Twitter / ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the benefits under the ‘PM CARES for Children’ on Monday via video-conferencing.
The government had launched the initiative on May 29 last year to support children who lost parents, legal guardian, adoptive parents or surviving parent to COVID-19 from March 11, 2020, to February 28, 2022.
I know how difficult the situation is for people who have lost their family members during the Covid-19 pandemic. This program is for the children who lost their parents during the pandemic. PM CARES for Children Scheme is an attempt to such children, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as quoted by ANI
PM Modi further said, PM Cares fund helped a lot in preparing hospitals, buying ventilators, and setting up oxygen plants during the pandemic. Because of this many lives could be saved. Those who left us untimely, today this fund is being used for their children, for the future of all of you.
PM Modi has promised Rs 4,000 a month for basic needs, financial support for schooling, scholarship for higher education, and free treatment upto Rs 5 lakh.
“I know how difficult the situation is for people who have lost their family members during the Covid-19 pandemic. This program is for the children who lost their parents during the pandemic,” said PM Modi. The PM CARES for Children Scheme, he explained, is an attempt to help such children.
“If a child needs an education loan for professional courses, for higher education, then PM-CARES will help in that too,” the prime minister said.
In a statement, the ministry said the prime minister will transfer scholarships to school-going children.
A PM CARES for Children passbook and health card under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana will also be handed over to them, it added.
The children, along with their guardians and the district magistrate concerned, will join the event through virtual mode.
The event will be attended by ministers, MPs and MLAs of the respective states and union territories, it said.
The objective of the scheme is to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children in a sustained manner by providing them boarding and lodging, empowering them through education and scholarships, equipping them for self-sufficient existence with financial support of Rs 10 lakh on attaining 23 years of age and ensuring their well-being through health insurance.
I am talking to the children not as the PM, but as a member of your family. I am very relieved to be among children today. PM Cares for Children is a reflection of the fact that every countryman is with you with utmost sensitivity , ANI quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying .
