Govt nod for scheme to save girl child

After more than two years of delay and deliberations over the costs involved,the state government finally okayed the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Sukanya Yojana,under which every below poverty line (BPL) family in the state,on the birth of a girl child,will receive Rs 21,200.

3 min readMumbaiJul 14, 2013 05:04 AM IST First published on: Jul 14, 2013 at 05:04 AM IST

After more than two years of delay and deliberations over the costs involved,the state government finally okayed the Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Sukanya Yojana,under which every below poverty line (BPL) family in the state,on the birth of a girl child,will receive Rs 21,200.

Introduced with a view to improve the skewed child sex ratio in the state,the scheme will entitle the girl to an amount of Rs 1 lakh when she turns 18. The scheme entitles girls to education scholarship of Rs 100 per month for classes 9,10,11 and 12. It will also provide them Rs 75,000 in case of accidental death or permanent disability of one or both parents,Rs 30,000 in case of natural death of her parent(s) and Rs 37,500 in case of partial handicap of her parent(s).

With 2.28 lakh girl children born in BPL families on an average every year in Maharashtra,the scheme will cost the state Rs 483 crore annually.

The scheme,drafted more than two years ago,was not being approved by the finance department because of the high costs involved. Minister for Women and Child Welfare Varsha Gaikwad said after pursuing the matter with CM Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar,the scheme has received their go-ahead and will now be tabled before the Cabinet.

“We have tied up with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for this project. The scheme will bring down the number of female foeticide cases in the state. It will apply to all girl children born on and after January 1,2014,” said Gaikwad.

Despite legislations like the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) and many campaigns against female foeticide,the situation has not improved in the state.

The earlier draft of the scheme limited the benefits to BPL families from only Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The final scheme includes BPL families from the general category as well.

Activist Varsha Deshpande,who exposed a number of clinics carrying out sex determination in the state,said the scheme misses an important in that most female foeticide cases are reported in upper class and upper caste families.

“The scheme will certainly prove beneficial for BPL families but I doubt if it will curb female foeticide. Instead,this money should be invested in life-long health insurance schemes for women,” she said.

She said that most female foeticides happen in sugar-belt and milk-belt of Western Maharashtra and upper class Maratha-dominated region of Marathwada.

Activist Farida Lambay said the scheme was a good beginning but failed to address the larger issue of awareness.

“A multi-pronged approach to bring about change in people’s mindset is the need of the hour. With so much cash involved,the implementation needs to be monitored,” said Lambay.

As per the 2011 census,Maharashtra had the fourth worst child sex ratio at 883 females to 1,000 males. Haryana (830),Punjab (846) and Jammu & Kashmir (859) were the worst three while Gujarat was fifth at 886. A similar insurance experiment has been carried out in Gujarat. In Maharashtra,the sex ratio in rural areas was 948 females per 1,000 males,while in urban areas it was 899 females per 1,000 males.