Furnish details of PM Cares Fund for children: SC asks Centre

New Delhi, June 01: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took note of the Centre''s welfare scheme to provide relief to children who have lost parents to COVID-19 pandemic, and sought details of the plan along with the mechanism devised to monitor it.

A bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose also directed states and Union Territories (UTs) to appoint nodal officers of level of Secretary or Joint Secretary who will interact with its amicus curiae Gaurav Agrawal for providing all the information on orphans, their identification and about the welfare measures for them.

The bench said it would hear on Monday the cases of ten states first - Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand where more kids have bread winner guardians.

The top court has been hearing an application, in a pending sup motu case on spread of COVID-19 in children homes, filed by the amicus curiae highlighting the woes being faced by kids orphaned by the deadly virus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced a slew of measures to help children orphaned by the pandemic as he chaired a meeting on Covid relief.

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, which will be used to give a monthly financial support from 18 years of age, for the next five years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher education.

On reaching the age of 23, he or she will get the corpus amount in a lumpsum for personal and professional use, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a statement. Also, the scheme will take responsibility for the educational needs of such children, as they will be given admission in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar.

Besides, if the child is admitted in a private school, the fees as per Right to Education norms will be given from PM CARES, added the PMO. PM CARES will also pay for uniform, text books and notebooks. Additionally, children in the 11-18 age group will be given admission in Central government residential schools such as Sainik School, Navodaya Vidyalaya and others.

But in case the child is to be continued under the care of guardian/grandparents/ extended family, he or she will be given admission in the nearest Kendriya Vidyalaya or in a private school as a day scholar, added the PMO.