West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today took up a cause pioneered by social reformers Rammohun Roy and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar to prevent child marriage by launching a special scheme for girls that aims at preventing child marriage.
Titled 'Kanyashree', the scheme has two parts - a one-time payment and an annual scholarship - and will be available to families whose annual income is less than Rs 1.2 lakh.
The one-time payment of Rs 25,000 will be made to the family of a girl if she is part of the education stream and not married off till 18 years of age.
The annual scholarship of Rs 500 will be paid from Class VIII to XII for girl students as Class VIII is the level at which many girl students usually drop out and are married off, officials said.
"Kanyashree is aimed at providing some relief to the poor girl students and their empowerment through improved education," Banerjee said, launching the project.
"Today there were 10,000 beneficiaries, but the target is to cover 24 lakh in a year," she said.
There would be no income restrictions for entitlement to get the benefit for the disabled students, she said.
"Rammohun Roy and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar had fought child marriage, but girls are getting married at the ages of 12, 13 and 14. Many girls are married off at an early age. We are trying to stop this," Banerjee said.
"Say no to child marriage and pursue your career," she told thousands of school students who thronged the Netaji Indoor stadium where several Bengali film stars, including Prosenjit and Koel, were present to cheer the girls.
She said the project would cost the exchequer around Rs 1,000 crore annually.
"Direct bank transfer of money from the exchequer will start soon, for which 10,000 beneficiaries have been selected today and beneficiaries have bank accounts opened for the money transfer process," she said.
