Bihar to fund every girl from birth to graduation
2 min readPATNA: Here’s a good news for girls in Bihar: Every newborn will get Rs 5,000, every Intermediate passout Rs 10,000 and every graduate Rs 25,000 under the state government’s Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana (MKUY).
A proposal to this effect was approved by the state cabinet at its meeting on Thursday. “These three schemes are in addition to the schemes already part of the MKUY,” chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said, adding the latest initiatives were aimed at ensuring improved health of girl children and discouraging child marriage apart from promoting their desire for education.
The cabinet also sanctioned a proposal to increase the uniform allowance to girl students of Standard I to XII. Also, it increased the sanitary napkin allowance for girls attaining puberty from Rs 150 to Rs 300.
Thus, the government will now spend a total of Rs 60,000 on every girl student. The MKUY is “universal” in the sense that beneficiaries would be selected irrespective of their caste, religion, language and class. The MKUY will be applicable to students of only government and government-aided institutions.
The new schemes will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 1,400 crore annually, while the annual expenditure on the existing schemes meant for the girl children and students is Rs 840 crore.
Parents of every newborn girl would be paid Rs 1,000 for her post-natal care. They will get another Rs 2,000 after her Aadhaar number is procured and yet another Rs 2,000 after her basic immunisation is over.
The uniform allowance has been increased from Rs 250 to Rs 400 for girls of standard I and II, from Rs 500 to Rs 700 for those of standard III to V, from Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 for those of Standard VI to VIII and from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 for the girls of Standard IX to XII.
The cabinet also sanctioned a proposal to relax the condition of 40% burns for acid attack victims to get a monthly pension of Rs 400. “Now, acid attack victims will get the pension even if she happens to have suffered 10% burns on any part of the body,” the chief secretary said, adding the pension is in addition to the money spent by the government on the treatment, including plastic surgery, of the acid burns.
The cabinet gave its nod to increase the amount payable annually to children (three to six years) at Anganbari centres for buying their uniforms from Rs 250 to Rs 400.
Courtesy: TNN
