Kolkata: The North 24-Parganas district administration on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Saturday has taken a unique initiative of visiting every household in specific areas of Habra to check dropouts among girl children from April this year. The campaign will be carried out in 24 wards of Habra Municipality and four Panchayat areas as well.
A programme was organised at Habra on Saturday where the local MLA Jyotipriya Mallick was present along with administrative officials from the district.
During the campaign which will start from April, the officials will mainly highlight the ‘Kanyashree’ scheme of the state government which has become a tremendous success in checking school drop out rate in Bengal.
According to sources, the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department has so far approved a total 3,03,63,090 applications out of 3,06,29,755 submitted to the department till now from around 18,183 schools throughout the state. Applications were collected from all categories of beneficiaries under the ‘Kanyashree’ scheme — K1, K2 and K3.
Kanyashree Prakalpa K1, K2, & K3 are school and college-level scholarships. ‘Kanyashree’ scheme is offered by the department of Women Development and Social Welfare, for the girl students of Bengal who are aged between 13 to 19. State government started the scheme in 2013. In 2017, the state had received the United Nations Public Services Award (UNPSA) for the ‘Kanyashree’ scheme.
‘Kanyashree’ is a conditional cash transfer programme for adolescent girls, aged 13 to 19 years, from economically backward families in Bengal to prevent their marriage before they turn 18. It has been instrumental in stopping 500-odd marriages yearly since
its inception.