বাংলায় পড়ুন
Further extending the benefits of award-winning project by the West Bengal state government, it has been decided that girls of private schools too would get benefits of Kanyashree. Notifications in this regard have been sent to district administrations.
So far the family income ceiling for applicant beneficiaries have been removed bringing in all girls under the umbrella of the pet project of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, for which she had been felicitated at the UN. Previously only girls from families which earned less than Rs 1.5 lakh annually were qualified to apply. Now all girls from Class VIII to graduation level are being benefitted.
With the new notification it is expected that many other girls will be brought under this project. Sources said that under the new decision, girls from private schools will have to initially apply online. District administrations will send names of private schools to the state government. After the state government okays the name of the school concerned, it will have to register with the state government following which all students of the school would come under the Kanyashree project.
Authorities of private schools across the state who had been rueing that their girls were deprived of Kanyashree project, will now have a lot to cheer for.
Other than the financial assistance, Kanyashree had proved a success socially, chiefly bringing down the rate of child marriage. Economically backward families used to marry off their girls at a young age because with age getting a groom became difficult and prospective grooms also demanded dowry.
After Kanyashree project has been made effective, parents are not marrying their girls at an early age because they know that once the girl attained the age of 18, they would get a grant of Rs 25,000 from the government. The number of school dropouts have also been brought under control. Earlier, girls used to drop out of schools after classes VII, IX or X but now, thanks to the grant for higher studies, girls are incentivised to carry on with their studies. With the introduction of K3, even college goers’ number has increased. According to the K1 scheme of the project, a Class VIII girl child when becomes 13-years-old, gets a grant of Rs 1000 per year. At 18 she gets Rs 25,000 under K2 and K3 covers her higher studies paying Rs 2500 per month to those studying Science and Rs 2000 per month for Arts students.
