Pedalling towards its aim of encouraging the girl child education, the Punjab Government has decided to extend the scope of its ambitious Mai Bhago Istri Vidya Scheme to cover the girl students of Class IX and X. As per the scheme, the State Government is providing free bicycles to the girl students of the Government schools studying in Class XI and XII.
The scheme was launched with an aim of making the high and senior secondary schools approachable to the girl students, which act as a deterrent to the parents to send their children to schools at some distance.
While announcing the scheme in 2011-12 budget, the State Government had maintained that the scheme would be extended to all girl students studying in Class XI and X later on.
Fulfilling its promise, the Government has not decided to widen its scope and cover more and more girl students, aimed at boosting women empowerment, improving female literacy rate and furthering development of women. As per available figures, only six per cent students go to college in Punjab after ten-plus-two, in which the number of women is shockingly low.
Sources told The Pioneer that the education department is, as of now, working out the modalities and have asked its officials in all districts to assess the total number of girl students in the two classes at government schools, who are eligible for distribution of cycles.
In the first year of its launch, the State Government had covered 1.11 lakh girl students of Class XI and XII spending Rs30 crore in 2011-2012, while Rs40 crore were spent to provide bicycles to 1.47 lakh girl students in 2013-2014. The scheme was given a miss for two years in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014.
For 2015-16, the State Government has set aside Rs40 crore in its budget for the scheme to provide free bicycles to girl students of Class XI and XII of Government schools. The provision for Class IX and X girl students would be made separately, said the education department official.