Nitish cabinet approves scheme to motivate girl do graduation

The Nitish Kumar cabinet today approved an ambitious scheme under which a girl would be given Rs 25,000 as an incentive if she acquires graduation degree.

In addition, under the scheme "Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana", a girl passing intermediate examination and if she is unmarried, then she would be given Rs 10,000, Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

The newly launched scheme would be applicable from April, 2018, he said.

The government's ambitious scheme would benefit around Rs 1.60 crore girls every year, he said.

The government would be spending annually Rs 60,000 per girl child apart from the existing schemes like scholarship, bi-cycle scheme, Students Credit Card etc., the CS added.

The idea behind giving Rs 10,000 as an incentive is to stop "child marriage", Singh said adding that if a girl passes intermediate examination and gets married then she would not be entitled to the benefit.

A girl who passes graduation would be entitled to get Rs 25,000 as an incentive, he said adding that this scheme is applicable to even married women as it is considered that by the time a girl passes graduation she becomes major.

The scheme is a universal one and would be applicable to all sections of the society without making any discrimination on the basis of caste, religion or income, Singh said.

The basic idea is to improve the lot of women especially girl children by checking female foeticide and child marriage, improving sex-ratio, promoting girl child's birth and education, immunisation of girl children of upto two years of age, reducing female infant mortality rate etc.

"At present, the state government gives Rs 2,000 on the birth of girl child and she gets the amount after 20 years on maturity. Now we will give Rs 5,000 to every girl child," Singh said.

The first installment of Rs 2,000 would be given to the girl child on her birth while the second installment of Rs 1000 will be given to the child once she turns one year and her biometrics linked with Aadhaar and final installment of Rs 2000 will be given to the child on the completion of immunisation, he said.

He said that this would help government in achieving the target of complete immunisation and Aadhaar linkage.

Similarly, the amount being given for girl's uniform has also been increased by around 50 per cent for students of class I to XII, the Chief Secretary said.

The amount being given annually for buying sanitary napkins has also been increased from current Rs 150 to Rs 300, he added.

The state government, which spends Rs 840 crore annually on girl's education, health and social welfare schemes, will spend another Rs 1400 crore annually under the ambitious "Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana", thus taking the total annual spending for girl's overall development to Rs 2221 crore.

In another important decision, the cabinet also decided to abolish the criteria of 40 per cent disability in case of acid victims in order to give them Rs 400 pension per month, Singh said.

The cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also decided to increase the amount to buy uniform from current Rs 250 to Rs 400 for children aged between three to six years of age at Anganwadi Kendras, he said.