Reward for finding children left out

[related-post]

There were instances on Saturday where surveyors could not reach an address or found homes locked. Kumar said, “There are chances that officials did not report a few out of school children, thinking they may be held responsible for these kids not being already enrolled. Hence we want to announce rewards to persons who notify us about a kid left out. We will provide an Aadhaar card to these kids.”

In a survey of out-of-school children conducted by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2009, an estimated 81.51 lakh (4.28%) children were out-of-school in the age group of 6-13 years.

It was estimated that in Maharashtra there were 2,07,345 out-of- school children. In 2011-12, 2.3 lakh out-of-school kids were found across Maharashtra. According to educationists and social activists, the number would have risen in 2015.

However, the state government is calling this year’s survey a foolproof one for, apart from enrolling out-of-school children found in the survey, it will provide Aadhaar cards to them within eight days of the survey data being collated. “This is to ensure maximum number of children are enrolled in mainstream schools and get formal education,” added Kumar.