PM had announced govt will launch a slew of welfare measures for orphan children
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government would launch a slew of welfare measures for children who had lost their parents to COVID-19. The elaborate plan had components of the setting up of a corpus, ensuring their education requirements and other health and social support. This was followed by similar announcements by different State governments. Nearly two months down the line, the project is in varying levels of implementation in States, with respect to enumerating the children and sanctioning funds for their upkeep.
Maharashtra has identified a total of 482 in the age-group of 0 to 18 who lost both their parents in the pandemic, till July 21. Out of these, 264 are boys, while 218 are girls. The government said it had allocated ₹10 crore for the scheme as of now, and that the allotment would be increased as per requirement. The benefits would accrue both for children who lost both parents or one parent due to COVID-19 and the other due to some other reason, the State said.