Provide details of scheme to support children orphaned due to COVID-19 under PM Cares Fund: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central government to provide the details of the scheme recently announced under the PM Cares Fund to ensure that the children who lost their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic will be benefitted.

The top court also asked the government to file a response on the implementation of the scheme.

A two-judge vacation bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao and also comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, passed the order while hearing an application in connection with the suo motu matter, on prevention of COVID-19 in child care institutions across the country.

The Apex Court also noted that the Amicus Curiae (Friend of the court), Gaurav Agrawal, appointed by the apex court to assist the Court in the matter, has asked 10 states to appoint a nodal officer who would interact with him regarding necessary information of orphans and discuss the problems faced regarding identification.

The NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court, stating that 9,246 children have either lost one or the other parent, the Apex Court said.

NCPCR lawyer, Swarupama Chaturvedi, submitted to the Apex Court that all the states have not provided complete information about the children who have been affected (their parents died).

10 states which were asked by the Apex Court to appoint the nodal officer who would interact with the Amicus Curiae, regarding necessary information of orphans and discuss the loss of the children's parents, are Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Jharkhand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that all children who have lost both parents or guardians due to COVID-19 will be supported under the 'PM-CARES for Children' scheme.

The PM CARES will contribute through a specially designed scheme to create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age.

( With inputs from ANI )