The orphan child will get Rs 4,000 in pocket money every month apart from housing and care (Representational Image)
The Bill seeks to secure the future, education and skill development of orphans and destitute children, who are referred to as “children of the State” in the Bill.
The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to provide shelter, education and Rs 4,000 “pocket money” to orphans, terming them “children of the state”.
Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said the proposed law would make Himachal Pradesh the first state to enact such a law, but the opposition BJP claimed the provision was already there in central schemes. The Himachal Pradesh Sukhashraya (Care, Protection and Self-Reliance of Children of the State) Bill 2023 aims to take care of destitute children and orphans.
The Bill defines street children and orphans as “children of the State” and provides for education, skill training and securing the future of these children. Apart from providing shelter and care, orphans will get ‘pocket money’ of Rs 4,000 per month, benefitting 6,000 children. Responding to the debate on the bill, Sukhu said that Himachal Pradesh is the first state in the country to pass such a law and full budget provision has been made to implement the bill. He said that an amount of Rs 101 crore has been earmarked for this. , “This scheme is not a copy of any other scheme and the government will not only take care of orphan children up to the age of 27, but also bear the cost of their higher education and provide pocket money of Rs 4,000 per month,” he said. He said that on completion of 27 years of age, he would be given three twenty years of land and money to build a house.
The chief minister asserted that there is no such act in the country that talks about “children of the state” and Sukhashraya is the first such scheme.
The opposition, however, hit out at the Congress-led state government and said most of the provisions of the bill were already present in the schemes of the central government.
Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur and BJP leader Hans Raj said it appeared that the Chief Minister has named the scheme after them. BJP’s Trilok Jamwal claimed that provisions existing in the Juvenile Justice Act have been included in the Bill. An expenditure of about Rs 272.27 crore will be involved in the implementation of the provisions of the Bill. As per the Bill, Child Welfare Committees will be constituted which will be empowered to order admission of persons in after care institutions. The state government will make arrangements to increase the period of stay of orphans and destitute children in child care institutions by two years after completing 18 years of age. In exceptional cases, such children may be placed in after-care institutions till the age of 23, where these institutions provide for their education and give them employable skills and placements, thus helping them to reintegrate into the mainstream. helps.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)