Intent on providing legal protection to Bangaru Thalli, a programme intended to benefit girls in the State, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday directed officials to prepare a draft.
At a meeting to brief ministers on the features of Bangaru Thalli, he said the draft would be placed at the next cabinet meeting so that a meaningful discussion with all ministers could take place.
“The Chief Minister is keen on the programme having legal protection. We will discuss it in the next cabinet meeting,” Women and Child Welfare Minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy said after the meeting. The Chief Minister also directed the officials to work out detailed guidelines and implementation mechanism for Bangaru Talli.
Explaining the scheme to the ministers, Kiran Reddy said that the primary objective was to enhance social status of the girl child and delay the age of marriage which is very important from the health and educational perspective.
The Chief Minister felt it would encourage institutional deliveries, ensure registration of birth, immunisation and anganwadi enrolment leading to better nutrition and educational standards of the girl child.
Bangaru Thalli seeks to achieve these objectives by cash transfer on meeting the conditions of institutional deliveries, birth registration, complete immunisation, enrolment in anganwadis and studies up to graduation. The Chief Minister also expressed his concern over the adverse child-sex ratio in Andhra Pradesh which has further deteriorated from 962 in 2001 to 943 in 2011.
Those who attended the meeting included ministers K Jana Reddy (Panchayat Raj), Ponnala Lakshmaiah (Information Technology), Pithani Satyanarayana (Social Welfare), S Sailajanath (Primary Education), D Manikya Vara Prasad (Rural Development), Suneetha Lakshma Reddy (Women and Child Welfare) and Chief Secretary PK Mohanty.