On July 29, the TMC-led West Bengal government’s initiative Kayashree Prakalpa has held out its hand to the postgraduate students students of the state, as declared by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The initiative has recently been accoladed with the United Nations Public Service Award.
The CM, at an event organized by the party to mark the success of the scheme, appreciated:
Under this scheme, girls after turning 18, get Rs 25,000 in their bank accounts (if they don’t get married and continue with their studies). We have ‘K1’ and ‘K2’. Now, we are starting ‘K3’, which means that after completing school and college, students who go for higher studies at universities (postgraduate) and score 45 per cent marks, will get Rs 2,500 per month for science subjects and Rs 2,000 per month for arts subjects.
Moreover, Mamata told the present gathering with immense joy that some NRIs from the US are moved by the initiative and have expressed their desire to sponsor research aspirations of 10 meritorious girl students from the state. She said:
Some NRIs came to meet me yesterday and said that they are willing to bear total expenses of 10 meritorious girl students who wish to pursue research work. They also said that they will help in future research work of these students. We are working on this.
The initiative, Kanyashree Prakalpa, is a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme and its prime arena of work is checking child marriage and retaining girls in schools and other educational institutions. By the means of this project, girls between 13 to 18 years (Class VIII to XII) receive an annual scholarship of Rs 750 from the government so as to keep on studying, on the condition that they are not married and the parents earn less than Rs 1.20 lakh annually. For those young girls who wish to pursue studies after turning 18 and still fall into the same economic bracket, the government provides with a one time grant of Rs 25,000 into her bank account, but on the condition that she is not married. Although, not all girls can be at an advantage from this initiative. Only those who come in the government specified bracket are eligible to apply for this scheme.
According to the data provided by the government about 41 lakh adolescent girls have come under the umbrella of this scheme. The initiative has aided over 15,500 institutions.
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