25,681 students in Maharashtra lost their parents to Covid-19 pandemic: Union Govt

The Union Ministry of Education on Monday said that 25681 students in Maharashtra lost their parents during the Covid 19 pandemic till August 2021The Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Annpurna Devi in a written response in the Lok Sabha said that out of the 25681 students 13025 students are boys and 12656 are girlsIn Mumbai the minister said 2822 students lost their parents to the pandemic among whom 1405 were boys and 1417 were girls In Aurangabad Kolhapur Latur Amravati Nagpur Pune and Nashik 1427 6833 453 2454 4447 5776 1469 students respectively lost their parents to the pandemicDevi was responding to a question listed by Member of Parliament from Maharashtrarsquos Osmanabad constituency Omprakash Bhupalsingh alias Pavan Pavan had further asked whether the government has formulated any scheme to provide free education to these students under the Right to Education ActIn the written reply the Minister of Education said during the challenging circumstances of Covid 19 pandemic the Ministry of Education made efforts to continue the education of the students through multiple alternative ways while ensuring safety and wellbeing of the studentsldquoSamagra Shiksha has been aligned with the National Education Policy NEP 2020 in order to ensure inclusive and equitable quality and holistic school education The Samagra Shiksha scheme for school education provides financial assistance for implementation of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education RTE Act 2009 which provides every child of the age of 614 years the right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till the completion of his or her elementary educationldquoThe Department of School Education and Literacy vide letter dated 4th May 2021 had shared a comprehensive Covid Action plan with StatesUTs and other stakeholders for mitigating the loss of learning This Department had also developed an online module for compiling the data of Out of School Children OOSC identified by each StateUT and their mapping with Special Training Centres STC on the PRABANDH Portal httpsamagrashikshain The portal requires the concerned StateUT to validate the child wise information of the identified OOSC and STC uploaded by the concerned Block Resource Centre of the State for monitoring the progress of mainstreaming of OOSC Also Bridge Course Modules were developed for bridging the learning gaps of Out of School Children studying in Special Training Centres STC under the provision of RTE Act 2009Also readMaharashtra reports 70 H1N1 cases in January this year second highest in countryldquoFurthermore Honble Prime Minister launched PM CARES for children scheme on 29th May 2021 which aims to support children who have lost both the parents or legal guardian or adoptive parents or surviving parent to COVID19 pandemic The detailed guidelines are available in the public domain at httpspmcaresforchildreninpublicwebdesignimagesguidelinespdf StateUTs have been directed that all the benefits and entitlements of Samagra Shiksha as per existing norms may be provided to children registered for lsquoPM CARES for children schemersquo and admitted in schools covered under Samagra ShikshardquoThe ministry in its response noted that as per government notification of January 25 2023 Covid affected child whose parents either both or single died due to covid infection caused in between 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2022 is included in the rule of the Maharashtra Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Manner of admission of Minimum 2537 children in ClassI or Preschool at the entry level for the children belonging to disadvantaged group and weaker section Rule 2013