Nearly 67L girls of Kanyashree scheme benefit from regular communiqué during Covid

Kolkata: With the state government's initiative to send regular communiqué on COVID-19 to 67 lakh beneficiaries of Kanyashree Prakalpa, the girls from 18,000 educational institutions across the state played a crucial role in urging people around them follow the norms of physical distancing and use of masks to check the spread of the virus.

The Bengal government on Friday observed the seventh Kanyashree Divas, celebrating the success of the project that was the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to empower girls. The assistance provided to girls to continue their studies through the scheme has not only reduced school dropout rate and cases of early marriage but also made lakhs of girls self-sufficient.

In a tweet on the same, Banerjee stated: "Today is Kanyashree Dibas. The Kanyashree scheme started in 2013, has won the @UN (first prize) award. Nearly 67 lakh girls have been empowered through this unique scheme. Girls are assets of our nation, and we are proud of them."

Kanyashree Prakalpa was awarded the first prize at the United Nations Public Service Award for the Asia Pacific at The Hague in The Netherlands in 2017.

Till date, the state Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department has brought 67 lakh girls from 18,000 schools and colleges under the project. But they cannot attend classes in schools and colleges at present in the wake of COVID-19 and need to stay at home. However, the department is in constant touch with them by sending regular communiqués on their mobile phones. Often, three text messages are sent to their cell phones — first, urging them to follow norms of physical distancing, use masks, hand sanitisers while the second is about checking child marriages and the last one is to encourage them to study at home besides remaining busy in household chores when their educational institutions are shut. They are again creating awareness on the same among their relatives, friends and neighbours, said Shashi Panja, Minister of State for the department while addressing the state-level programme on Kanyashree Divas at Rabindra Sadan.

The department's Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh, chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti and chairperson of the State Social Welfare Board Suranjana Chakraborty were also present at the event.

On Thursday, six schools and colleges were awarded in each district, including Kolkata, for their best performance in implementing the Kanyashree Prakalpa. In Kolkata, Khanpur Nirmala Bala Sarkar Girls' High School, Garden Reach Nata Bihari Girls' High School, Judge Abdul Bari Girls' High School, Shibnath Sastri College, Bethune College and Behala College were honoured. As many as 46 Kanyashree beneficiaries, including two from Kolkata, were awarded for their exceptional performance in different fields.