New May 20 (IANS) Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and urged him that those children who have lost parents during the pandemic be admitted to Navodaya Vidayalayas.

"I am writing to request you to consider providing free education at the Navodaya Vidyalayas to children who have lost either both parents or an earning parent on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. 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," she wrote.

Gandhi said amid the devastation caused by the pandemic and the heart-wrenching tragedies being faced by affected families, news of young children losing one or both parents to Covid-19 are the most poignant. Children are left with the trauma of loss and no support towards a stable education or future.

She further added that one of her late husband Rajiv Gandhi's most significant legacies is the network of Navodaya Vidyalayas.

"It was his dream to make high-quality modern education accessible and affordable to talented youth, predominantly from rural areas. There are now, as you know, 661 such schools across the country," she said.

--IANS miz/ash