Haryana ranks 12th under PM Cares for Children; Maharashtra tops list

The Nayab Singh Saini Government may be projecting strong implementation of pro-people Central schemes, but it has fallen behind in enrolling orphaned children under the PM Cares for Children Scheme, a flagship initiative aimed at providing comprehensive care and protection to children till the age of 23.

What statistics say

• Among neighbouring states, Haryana lags behind Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan
• Haryana fares better than Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh
• Maharashtra leads enrolments, followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh
• Only eight children have received financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh

What is PM Cares

The PM Cares for Children Scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 29, 2021. It supports children who lost both parents, legal guardian, adoptive parents, surviving parent to the Covid pandemic from March 11, 2020 onwards. The objective is to ensure comprehensive care, health insurance, education support and financial assistance to enable self-sufficiency by the age of 23.

Data presented by Savitri Thakur, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, in reply to an unstarred question by S Selvaganabathy in the Rajya Sabha, placed Haryana at the 12th spot among the 36 states and Union Territories. Haryana enrolled 22 children under PM Cares in the past three years — 16 in 2022, two in 2023 and four in 2024.

Maharashtra topped the list with 157 enrolments, followed by Tamil Nadu (103) and Madhya Pradesh (78).

Haryana’s performance has been mixed when compared to neighbouring states. Uttar Pradesh (62), Delhi (46) and Rajasthan (24) recorded higher enrolments, while Punjab (6), Himachal Pradesh (1) and Chandigarh (1) fared worse.

Surprisingly, six states/UTs — Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Sikkim and Tripura — have not enrolled a single child under the scheme. Over a dozen states/UTs, including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab and West Bengal, reported single-digit enrolments.

The Rajya Sabha was informed that eight children have so far been granted financial assistance amounting to Rs 10 lakh on attaining the age of 23 years.

Under the scheme, a pro-rata amount is credited to the account of each beneficiary to ensure a corpus of Rs 10 lakh when the child turns 18. Between the ages of 18 and 23, the child is entitled to a monthly stipend by investing the Rs 10 lakh corpus. All children enrolled under PM Cares are also covered under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana with annual health insurance of Rs 5 lakh.