Monthly income for girls’ mothers : India

West Bengal :

Tamluk :

The East Midnapore administration has started a scheme under which a girl child’s mother will receive Rs 2,000 a month for five years for tending to trees and when the kid grows up to be 18, receive a one-time grant of Rs 25,000 for either her marriage or higher education.

The scheme, Ma Lakshmi, is similar to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project – Kanyashree – but the financial benefits under the new one are much more. (See chart)

SchemeBengalSAM27jul2016

Women from financially weak families will be paid the monthly wages from funds under the 100-day rural job scheme. A mother will receive the benefit for one girl child.

Mothers whose daughters have attained the age of 13 will be eligible for enlistment under the scheme. For five years, that is till the daughters attain the age of 18, the mothers will tend to saplings planted by the administration on the roadside.

Each mother will receive Rs 2,000 a month – Rs 1.2 lakh in five years. After five years, the administration will sell the trees and pay the beneficiaries a lump sum of Rs 25,000 each from the proceeds.

The scheme, which will encourage greenery on the one hand and discourage early marriage on the other, will start next month. The plan will kick off with a pilot project for which 110 mothers have been selected in the Patashpur II block.

Block development officer Subhajit Kundu said: “We had sought a list of poor familiesfrom 20 schools in the block. The headmasters selected the students and gave us a list of 110 families.” No income cut-off has been set.

Kundu said if a girl drops out of school or gets married before 18, her mother will be struck off the list of beneficiaries.

District magistrate Rashmi Kamal said: “The Ma Lakshmi scheme will be gradually spread to the other blocks of the district. If the scheme is successful, a proposal will be sent to the state government to launch it in the other districts as well.”

Ma Lakshmi will run concurrently with Kanyashree.

“Although Kanyashree has reduced the school dropout rate among girls, the number of girls getting married before the permissible age (18) is still significant. I have gone to villages and stopped child marriages. I found out that many families don’t have the money to continue their daughter’s education. This scheme will help them,” Kundu said.

Elaborating on the environment friendliness of Ma Lakshmi, the BDO said district officials had noted that many saplings planted on the roadside were either withering or had stunted growth. “The saplings are either being eaten up by cattle or lack proper nourishment. This scheme will help save the saplings so that they can grow fully. The planting of saplings will be a continuous process,” Kundu said.

Each beneficiary will have to look after 250 saplings – of eucalyptus or jhau or akashmoni trees. “They will have to water the saplings, apply manure and put up barricades so that cows and goats do not eat them or destroy them. For this, they will get Rs 2,000 a month,” Kundu said.

Guardians are happy with the scheme.

Rudrali Mishra, 45, of Bagmari village, who is one of the beneficiaries, said: “My husband is a daily wage labourer. I have three daughters. We had to discontinue the studies of the eldest one after she reached Class X because of lack of money. We were compelled to marry her off when she was 16. But the scheme can benefit my other daughters.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Bengal> Story / Wednesday – July 27th, 2016

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