The COVID-19 pandemic was a big humanitarian crisis. All the analysts and researchers drowsed off but the death toll didn’t stop counting. Millions of people and their children got ravaged by the wave of this deadly virus. In India, where numerous innocent lives got covered under white sheets, left a gigantic amount of children orphaned. When all the hopes of these children died, PM Narendra Modi came as their saviour with his inclusive policies for their development.
Children Welfare Scheme
On 30 May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed the benefits of the “PM Cares for Children” scheme through video conferencing. The scheme is designed for the children who lost their parents during the pandemic.
PM Modi said, “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 help such children.”
This scheme is shaped to help the children who are looking for an educational loan for the purpose of their higher studies or other professional courses. The government has also planned to provide Rs.4000 for the daily needs of these children.
“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”, PM Modi said.
PM also mentioned that once the school gets over, students often need more money for their higher education. Due to this, the youth between 18 to 23 years of age will get a stipend every month and once they are 23 years old, they will get ₹ 10 lakh.
What is ‘PM CARES for Children’?
PM CARES for Children is aimed at supporting children who lost both their parents or legal guardians Adoptive Parents or Surviving Parents to the COVID-19 pandemic during the period starting from 11th March 2020. It ensures comprehensive care and protection of Children in a sustained manner and enables their well-being through health insurance. The focus is to empower them through education and equip them for self-sufficient existence with financial support upon reaching 23 years of age.
This scheme has come into force to provide financial assistance of ₹10 Lakh to all children. In addition, it includes Rehabilitation of all children, assistance for school education, educational loans for higher education, health insurance cover of ₹5 lakh, and ₹20,000 as scholarships for all school-going children.
Read more: State-sponsored forced religious conversions in convent schools must be prohibited
The killing of dreams during COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it unbearable suffering which destroyed myriad families leaving their children destitute. The pandemic compelled the future of our nation to work for their survival and dust off poverty ravaging their lives. This heinous phase of life has pushed little hands to roll the wheels, and weigh heavy rat-picking bags, while some are pricked with glass bangles. All these are not just instances but an explanation of little hands wrinkled with the pressure of survival.
As per the data till 5 June 2021, 30,071 children were orphaned, lost a parent, or were abandoned mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As reported by TFI, the global health body observed that 47.4 lakh people in India had died in 2020 and 2021.
Read more: Not just Covid but another violent disease has put a whole Chinese city in lockdown
Among all these death toll figures, most of the numbers account for the elders who were under higher risk as compared to the children whose guardians find themselves on the same list. This has impelled the toddlers to smell the factory machinery in their age of flavouring educational books. The pandemic has led the dreams of a bright future to weave the reality of countering hunger. The hands which were considered an incarnation of God are now a harder reality carrying heaps of sacks with the hope to overcome poverty.
PM Modi: The Saviour
There is a need to throw some light over these stories for their ramifications in order to save the future lives, apparently which are going to be spent working. The World’s fifth-largest economy cannot afford to visualise its future without books in hand. It’s a blessing in disguise that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as a liberator from this dark upcoming.
The policies and plans launched by PM Modi will help shape the future of small kids. This will help in scholarships, easy access to jobs, better healthcare facilities, mid-day meals, and many more. All these policies can turn out to be a turning point to fulfil millions of aspirations.