NEW DELHI: A pilot project for giving financial assistance to children who lost their single or both parents to COVID-19 or due to some other reason post-March 2020 was launched on Monday, apex child rights body NCPCR said.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said financial assistance of Rs 2,000 per month will be given to facilitate a safety mesh for those children who became vulnerable and are in need of care and protection after March 2020.
The data for such children has been collected by the Commission through its Baal Swaraj' portal.
Kanoongo said the project was launched in Madhya Pradesh and will be expanded to the entire country in the coming months.
The SAMARPAN FOR CHILDREN programme was launched on a pilot basis in three districts of the state i.e. Vidisha, Raisen and Sehore on Monday.
Under the pilot project, 83 children identified from these three districts will be provided financial assistance, he said.
Kanoongo said the Commission was approached by Space2Grow and Vedantu Innovations Pvt Ltd and they have expressed their desire to contribute to these 83 children.
The effort of the Commission is to ensure that children do not end up in 'Children Homes' without assessing their need to be kept in such institution.
Also, the bonding of the CNCP (children in need of care and protection) children with their family members and surviving guardians is enforced, he said.
"In this regard, the Commission had a meeting with stakeholders of various leading corporate foundations and CSO partners under the aegis of NITI Aayog in June 2021, who have expressed their desire to contribute for the rights of children through their CSR initiatives," the NCPCR chairman said.
Further, as decided in the said meeting, it has been noted by the Commission that children could be benefited best by making available support to them through sponsorship under section 105 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, by directly transferring money into their accounts from the contributions made by organisations in the JJ Fund, Kanoongo said.