PATNA: AT a time when performance in the population control programmes is at the heart of India’s north-south divide over the sharing of central taxes, Bihar is focusing on educating girls in its efforts to both empower them and to stabilise the population.While Bihar’s population (10.4 crore in 2011) rose by 147 per cent since 1971 when it was 4.2 crore, Tamil Nadu, for instance, checked its population rise to 75 per cent during this period from 4.1 crore to 7.2 crore. Bihar is, however, among the top three states where sex ratio at birth improved in the recent years, according to a Niti Aayog report.
After earning kudos from women for total prohibition two years ago, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has unveiled an ambitious scheme to educate girls. A range of monetary incentives which the government announced recently aims at encouraging girls to study at least up to graduation level so that they are not married off in their formative years.
Under the ‘Mukhya Mantri Kanya Utthan Yojana’, the government will provide monetary incentives to girls, right from their birth till they complete graduation. The Yojana promises Rs 5,000 to newborn girls, Rs 10,000 to every girl who passes intermediate level of studies, and Rs 25,000 on graduation.It will put an additional burden of Rs 1,400 crore on the exchequer on top of the Rs 840 crore spent annually on education, health and social welfare schemes for girls. The government’s annual spending on every girl child now stands at Rs 60,000, say officials.
“The idea behind giving Rs 10,000 as an incentive to every girl passing intermediate examination if she is unmarried is to discourage and to prevent child marriages. If a girl passing the examination gets married, she will not get the benefit,” says chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh. The Rs 25,000 incentive is, however, applicable to even candidates who are married as they attain adulthood by the time they graduate.
Parents of newborn girls will get the Rs 5,000 incentive in three phases—Rs 1,000 for post-natal care, Rs 2,000 after the infant gets an Aadhaar, and Rs 2,000 after basic immunisation is completed. The government also hiked by 50 per cent the amount it gives to girls from classes I to XII for buying uniforms.Girls will annually get Rs 300, up from Rs 150, to buy sanitary napkins. The 40 per cent disability norm has been removed so that all acid attack victims get Rs 400 in monthly pension.