Sonia Gandhi Urges PM to Provide Free Education to Children Orphaned During Pandemic

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider providing free education at Navodaya Vidyalayas to children who lost their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to the Prime Minister Gandhi cited that it is the responsibility of the nation to give a ray of hope to the children for their future.

“I feel that as a nation, we owe it to them to give them hope for a robust future after the unimaginable tragedy that has befallen them”, wrote Gandhi in the letter.

Gandhi said that there have been several reports of children losing either an earning parent or both the parents on the account of the Covid-19 pandemic. After the loss, these children have been going through trauma with no hope for a stable future, she noted.

In the letter, the Congress president also mentioned her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and recalled that the creation of Navodaya Vidyalayas across India was one of his important legacies. Currently there are 661 Navodaya Vidyalayas in the country and the aim has been to make quality education accessible to all, she added.

More than 2 lakhs people have succumbed to the virus