By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 28, 2015 :

The Odisha government has come out with an insurance policy for school children in the age group of 6-14 with ex gratia ranging between Rs 10,000 for accidents and Rs 2 lakh for deaths or permanent disability.

“Students often meet with serious accidents while playing in school buildings due to natural calamities and food poisoning. In the recent past, many unfortunate incidents have taken place for which many PILs have been filed before the high court and human rights commissions. The courts, in many of the decisions, ordered the department to compensate the victims. In view of this, a full-fledged umbrella scheme to cover the students of government and government-aided schools in the state was felt necessary,” an order of the Department of School and Mass Education read.

The guidelines of the Secondary School Insurance System said, each student will be required to contribute Rs 2 per annum as premium. Department of School and Mass Education secretary Usha Padhee said the scheme would call the payment of ex gratia grant from the Students Welfare Fund. All medical expenses would be borne by the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Red Cross or the Orissa State Treatment Fund as per the norm.