Steps Taken for the Care and Protection of Children Adversely Impacted by COVID 19

The children in distress situations merit care and protection under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Rules made thereunder. The Ministry of Women and Child Development   is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely Child Protection Services (CPS) in partnership with the State Governments/UT Administrations for delivering the institutional and non-institutional care as stipulated under the JJ Act. As per the scheme guidelines, maintenance grant of Rs.2000/- per child per month is available for non- institutional care of children in need of care and protection, along with the provision of maintenance grant of Rs.2160/- per child per month for Children living in Child care Institutions.

The Ministry had alerted States/UTs to ensure that all the children in need of care and protection are reported to the respective Child Welfare Committee and rehabilitated in accordance with the provisions of the JJ Act, 2015. The States/UTs were requested to sensitise public to safeguard vulnerable children by way of public notice in local language. A note for public information was also uploaded on Ministry’s website i.e. www.wcd.nic.in. Data of orphan children who have lost their parents to Covid since April 2021 to 28.05.2021, is Annexed.

Hon’ble PM has announced PM CARES for children scheme to support children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian or adoptive parents due to COVID-19 pandemic. The scheme provides support for education and health and will create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age. This corpus will be used to give a monthly financial support/ stipend form 18 years of age, for the next 5 years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher education and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and professional use.

The Ministry asked States and UTs to take immediate action for care and protection of children adversely impacted by COVID 19, in accordance with the provisions of the JJ Act 2015 and Rules thereunder, while leveraging the facilities funded under the Child protection Services scheme. The Ministry also issued advisories and guidelines for encouraging COVID appropriate behavior, monitoring of Child Care Institutions and coping strategies during COVID times for mental health support to children and care givers. A responsibility matrix defining role of primary duty holders at all levels from State to Panchayati Raj Institutions was also shared with States/UTs.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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TFK

Annexure

As per information provided by States/UTs data of orphan children who have lost their parents to Covid since April 2021 to 28.05.2021 is as follows:

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(Release ID: 1738213)
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