Education Ministry releases online module to track out-of-school children

The ministry said that the module was created “considering the mandate of financial provisions made every year” for socially and economically disadvantaged groups.

The Education Ministry has released an online module to compile data on out-of-school children to ensure better dispersal of funds and schemes targeted for this section. While releasing the module,  Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that child-wise information of out-of-school children is to be uploaded at the block level by the block resource coordinator(BRC).

The minister said, “Child-wise information of the identified out of school children and STCs must be uploaded at block level under the Block Resource Coordinator. A quarterly progress report and a user manual are shared on the portal.” The ministry said that the module was created “considering the mandate of financial provisions made every year” for socially and economically disadvantaged groups.

The Department of School Education and Literacy, in a letter to all states, said: “The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, has developed an online module for compiling data of out of school children identified by states and union territories and their mapping with special training centres on Prabandh portal.” Data submitted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to the Supreme Court revealed that 30,071 children across states were found to be in distress, having lost one or both parents or been abandoned. A recent report by the UNICEF also revealed that the number of children in child labour has risen all over the world to 160 million. The report also warned that 9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It said that the “risk of child labour in India has also increased”.

Owing to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and with several children losing their parents, many states have been announcing various schemes for such children. Following the announcements, prime minister Narendra Modi, on May 29, announced many benefits for orphaned children under the “PM CARES for children” scheme. These include a fixed deposit amounting to Rs 10 lakh in the name of each child by the time they reach 18, payment of students' fees for private schools or the centrally-run Kendriya Vidyalayas, payment of the interest of their education loans and a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh till the age of 18. 

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