NELLORE: Although the Ammavodi scheme is intended to help children from poverty-stricken families get education so that they can be brought to the mainstream, the ground-reality is that the benefit is not reaching children, who have been disowned by their parents and are living in orphanages.
The government had released a GO extending the benefits under Ammavodi scheme to registered orphanage homes and guardians of children without parents. However, the amount has not been sanctioned to students of some recognised orphanage homes in Nellore district.
“We have applied for Ammavodi scheme benefits to cover nearly 60 students at the instance of the education department in January but we have not received any amount,” lamented G.V. Sambasiva Rao, manager of Vatsalya Home here.
Sarath Babu, who heads another reputed orphanage ‘Child Home’ near Allur, said that even they did not get the benefits though they had applied on behalf of over 60 students from their school.
Rao said that the education department did not give any reasons for denying the benefit. “We assumed that the applications were rejected since the name of the guardian was the same for over 60 students,” Rao said.
Vatsalya is a three-decade-old orphanage that shelters nearly 120 children and offers quality education to them. It is also running a school besides an old-age home in Nellore.
Several inmates bagged jobs both in private and government over the years but the voluntary organisation is in a fix overrunning the orphanage now because of mounting expenses and financial constraints.
The situation is not any different for Sarath Babu, who gave up his job in railways and dedicated his life to uplift orphans, especially platform children. Many of his students bagged respectable jobs both in private and government organisations.
However, running such institutions is becoming a gigantic task because of financial constraints. The Ammavodi scheme would be a big relief to the managements, they opined.
They said that they are also finding it difficult to obtain Aadhaar cards for the inmates. While some orphanage homes manage to secure the cards by mentioning the names of gods and goddesses as parents, some are unable to get a thumb impression when they are being told that there is an existing Aadhaar card with the same name.
“Some of the inmates are runaways from home during childhood and their parents might have obtained an Aadhaar card when they were at home” Sarath Babu reasoned.
Stressing that such children are unable to recollect their address or parents, he said it will be very helpful if authorities trace the address based on the thumb impression so as to reunite such children with their respective families.
Meanwhile, education minister Adimulapu Suresh said that they are giving Ammavodi benefits to nearly 15,000 orphans across the state.
Speaking to this correspondent, he said that those who are not getting the benefit should approach the revenue or education authorities for clarification while hinting that they are keen on passing the benefit to every eligible child.
