New Delhi : In bid to avail the financial support for children under the PM CARES scheme announced earlier, the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry has asked states and UTs to direct district magistrates to identify the children who have lost their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic.In a letter to chief secretaries of all states and UTs, WCD Ministry Secretary Indevar Pandey said a web-based portal “pmcaresforchildren.in” has been launched to facilitate submission of applications, identification of children eligible to receive support under the scheme and processing of applications for securing benefits to them.
“I would request you to direct the district magistrates in your state to identify the children eligible for receiving support under the PM CARES for Children’ scheme and populate the “pmcaresforchildren.in’ portal with the details of eligible children, to enable prompt assistance to them. This task may be completed within the next 15 days,” he said in the letter issued on July 22.
Detailing the process that has to be followed, Pandey asked the district magistrates to conduct a drive for identification of these children, with the assistance of police, DCPU, childline and civil society organisations.
Children, who have lost both their parents to COVID and requiring support under the scheme, may be produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by Childline (1098), District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) or any other agency or individual within 24 hours of noticing the child, excluding the journey time, he said.
