The Maharashtra cabinet has approved the ‘Lek Ladki Yojana’ for girl child, which will be implemented with retrospective effective from April 1, 2023.
The scheme, announced during the budget session in March, assures financial support to girl child from the birth. “This decision will ensure that the girl child is financially supported from the time she is born … From next week, we will be celebrating Navratri and paying obeisance to the divine power of Goddess Durga. The Mahayuti government has pledged to honour and pay reverence to womanhood, said Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande.
The state government aims to help poor families who hold orange and yellow ration cards.
The orange ration cards are allotted to families with annual income of Rs 15,000 to Rs 1 lakh, while the yellow ration cards are for those earning Rs 15,000 a year (Urban Area).
Initially, the family at the birth of a girl child will be given Rs 5,000 under the scheme. In the second phase, Rs 6,000 will be provided to the family when the girl goes to Class 1, Rs 7,000 when she goes to Class 6, Rs 8,000 when she takes admission in Class 9 and Rs 75,000 when she attains 18 years of age. This means, the girl and her family will receive a total of Rs 1,01,000 at the time she turns 18.
According to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra, 2023, 2.56 crore families hold the ration card, out of which, 1.71 crore are orange card holders and 62.60 lakh are yellow ration card holders, who will benefit from the scheme.
Often girls from families with yellow or orange ration cards are asked to compromise on their education due to money constraints. “This decision will ensure that the girl child is educated and is truly empowered,” Kayande said.
Minister of child and welfare department Aditi Tatkare told media that the state government has floated the scheme to empower girl child. “This took a bit longer to implement as we were getting continuous suggestions for this scheme, but now we have got the final nod of the cabinet. This will also reduce the incidents of female foeticides and school dropouts, which will help in curbing child marriages,” Tatkare said.
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