Waiting for a cycle in Gujarat: Scheme to check girl school dropouts hit by delay

Sanghavi, who argued that the delay was partially due to the time taken by “rigorous technical and physical inspection”, promised the House that there would not be any such lapse this academic year.

Under the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana, bicycles are distributed to girl students of Class 9, belonging to socially and educationally backward families or to families earning less than Rs 6 lakh annually. The scheme, launched in 2014, is meant to encourage girls to continue their education and to cut down the dropout rate, as most higher secondary schools are located at a distance from villages. Plus, with Class 8 the cut-off date when students faced their first passing exams, many dropped out if they failed to score.

The gram panchayat’s empty community hall which houses the bicycles. (Express photo/ Bhupendra Rana)

Gujarat Education Department figures show that while the dropout rate among school students of Classes 1-8 has significantly fallen from 37.22% in 2001-02 to 2.68% in 2022-23, in Classes 9-10, this was as high as 23.28% in 2022. In November 2024, the department had issued a circular to District Education Officers (DEOs) to appoint nodal officers to survey children who dropped out until February 2022, to record the causes for the same.

In the little over five years since the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana was launched, 7.93 lakh-plus bicycles have been distributed, but between January 2023 and January 2024, not a single one was handed out. Between January 2024 and January 2025, only 8,494 bicycles were given, with 1.45 lakh beneficiaries still waiting since 2023, as per data shared by the Social Justice and Empowerment Department in reply to a question by Congress MLA Imran Khedawala.

While the Social Justice and Empowerment Department monitors the distribution of bicycles to girl students belonging to SC and OBC families, the Tribal Development Department takes care of them for ST students.

At Naswadi taluka in the largely tribal Chhota Udepur district, a decrepit gram panchayat’s empty community hall, covered in dust and discarded rubbish, houses some of these undistributed bicycles. A lone police constable on panchayat duty stands outside.

The shelter provided by the halls means these bicycles, which landed here almost two years back, have fared better, with the red paint on their parts still shiny.

District officials, speaking off the record, say they have already distributed the cycles received under the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana for the approximately 900 eligible beneficiaries in their area. An official said: “The ones at the hall are the surplus cycles belonging to the 2023-24 financial year… These will be distributed to other students if needed, or be returned to the vendor.”

The main reason apparently for the near halt in distribution for the past two years was the change in specifications for the bicycles to be purchased made in 2023. Sanghavi told the Assembly that these changes included front baskets to put school bags in and quality reflectors for greater safety.

Under the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana, bicycles are distributed to girl students of Class 9, belonging to socially and educationally backward families or to families earning less than Rs 6 lakh annually. (Express photo/ Bhupendra Rana)

A senior government official said: “This caused a delay. For the fiscal year of 2023-24, the cycles were delivered in April 2024, and the State Purchase Committee could not complete the assessment of the bicycles in time. The pictures that were distributed by the Opposition of cycles rusting during the monsoon were not in government warehouses, nor had they been delivered to the government yet. They were in possession of vendors. Since they did not clear quality checks eventually, they were rejected and the vendor supplied usable, fit bicycles… About 95% of them have been distributed.”

The official said that the delay of 2023-24 had a cascading effect on the process in 2024-25. “We submitted the indent but Gujarat Rural Industries Marketing Corporation Limited (GRIMCO), which procures the cycles, did not do so for 2024-25. So no cycles were distributed,” the official said.

Another senior official said that GRIMCO has now initiated the process for separate tenders for procurement of bicycles covering the last financial year and the ongoing one, to ensure timely distribution at the commencement of the new academic session.

Apart from the delay, “forcing many girls to walk long distances to school”, the Opposition has been alleging irregularities in the procurement process. In July 2024, Congress leaders sought an investigation, with Leader of the Opposition Amit Chavda questioning why the Gujarat government paid Rs 4,444 per bicycle to the same company that had supplied the cycles in Rajasthan for Rs 3,857. This amounted to Rs 8.5 crore in excess payment for 2023-24, Chavda said.

Speaking in the Assembly last week, Sanghavi attributed the extra cost to the add-ons they had specified for the bicycles.

While admitting a delay, an elected BJP leader of Chhota Udepur, who also refused to be identified, said: “The students will receive the cycles this year, even those who were left out in the previous year… We have urged the government to expedite the process.”

A primary school teacher in Chhota Udepur district says any such setback is significant for tribal girl students. “Tribal families anyway are reluctant to send their children, especially girls, to schools that are not nearby. There have been instances of girls being abducted travelling on their own. This further makes the parents wary. Besides, a cycle works as an incentive for the entire family.”