The Madhya Pradesh department of women and child development (DWCD) has roped in private sponsorship to help more than 4,600 children—almost 90 per cent of them from families distressed by Covid-19 pandemic.
The department got sponsorship of minimum Rs 2,000 per month per child for 4,675 kids from private individuals, organisations, industries and corporates since the scheme was launched six months ago, principal secretary of the DWCD, Ashok Shah, told THE WEEK.
The support to the children is for a minimum period of one year and could be extended after review.
Shah said that Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country to take an initiative to help out children in need of care and protection through private sponsorship. Though the scheme is meant for kids in need of care and protection in general, in the current context, almost 90 per cent beneficiaries come from families where earning member/members have succumbed to Covid-19 or the pandemic has completely impacted the livelihood of the family.
The MP DWCD added special clauses in the MP Child Sponsorship Guidelines, 2020 to make this private sponsorship possible. Also, distress caused due to Covid-19 and other pandemics has been included in the list of eligibility criteria in the guidelines to help such impacted children, the PS said.
This private sponsorship is separate from the Sponsorship and Foster Care programme under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the government of India, though on similar lines.
Under the ICPS scheme, the state gets a 60 per cent grant from the GoI to provide family-based sponsorship or foster care to the children in need of care and protection. However, this support is restricted to 40 cases per district and therefore in Madhya Pradesh, the cap is at 2040 children per year. For the year 2021-22, the MP government has benefitted 351 kids under foster care and 1689 under the sponsorship programme.
Also, the private sponsorship programme is separate from the Mukhyamantri Covid Bal Seva Yojana – a state-level scheme for children orphaned during the first and second waves of Covid-19. Under the scheme, 1365 kids from the state who lost both their parents or guardian/s to Covid-19 are provided a financial assistance of Rs 5,000 per month, free ration and support for free education till graduation level.
Shah said that while collating the data and cases for the government schemes, many more children in need of care and support who could not be included in these schemes came to the notice of the department, and therefore the idea of private sponsorship was mooted. “This will be an ongoing scheme and sponsorships for more children or continued sponsorships for the children currently benefitted will be possible.”
In the private sponsorship scheme, there is no restriction regarding the number of children from one family who could be benefitted, although the ICPS sponsorship and foster care programme has a limit of two kids per family.
The beneficiary kids are selected through the district-level child welfare committees (CWCs) and the sponsorship amount is used at priority for providing basic needs like food, clothes, education and if required for skill development and employment-oriented trainings. Also sponsorships are possible for supporting formal education, coaching, medical need or vocational training.
The scheme also has provision for private sponsorship for amenities and services to the child care institutes of the government - like infrastructure building, sports material, stationery, library water coolers or any other services which are not included under the government scheme.
Provisions have been made to upload the accounts and details of the use of sponsorship funds on the departmental website, to maintain transparency.