Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dream project Kanyashree is all set to achieve a landmark by reaching 75 lakh girls soon. Till Tuesday, the number of Kanyashree beneficiaries reached 74.94 lakh.
With an aim to ensure that girls complete their school-level studies instead of getting married early, the Chief Minister had introduced the Kanyashree scheme in 2012. A beneficiary gets an annual financial assistance of Rs 1,000 from class VII onwards to class XII under Kanyashree I (K-I) and a one-time grant (K-II) of Rs 25,000 if the beneficiary completes class XII level studies without getting married. The K-I and K-II are supervised by the state Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department.
The K-III scholarship is implemented by the state Higher Education department that offers Rs 2,500 per month for Science stream students and Rs 2,000 per month for Arts students.
The K-I and K-II beneficiaries will soon touch the 75 lakh mark. From April 2021 till December, the number of K-I beneficiaries have been 32.79 lakh while that in K-II is 6.76 lakh.
The expenditure till December 2021 has been over Rs 11,193 crore. In 2021-22 fiscal till December, the spending has been Rs 2,138.66 crore.
In June 2017, the United Nations honoured Kanyashree with the highest public service award. The project ranked the best among 552 such social sector schemes from across 62 countries that were nominated for the coveted prize.
The state's expenditure on the Kanyashree project assumes significance as the BJP-led government at the Centre spent 58 per cent of the allocated funds only in advertisements.