Following the encouraging show of the CM Laxmi Ladli Yojna the State Government has gone ahead introducing new scheme for the girl children of Jharkhand. The new scheme named as Chief Minister Sukanya Yojna is expected to be rolled out from January 1next year to provide periodical encouragements for better upbringing to girl child till the time of her marriage.
Announcing about the scheme on Wednesday Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that 26 lakh families would be benefitted by this. “CM Sukanya Yojna would be started from new year in Jharkhand. We are preparing for this. About 26 lakh families enumerated under the Social, Economic and Caste census would be financially benefited so that girls are not treated like a burden and they can grow on equal footings,” said the CM during the launch of roadmap for eradication of child marriage in association with Unicef.
Terming the menace as a blot on the State the CM said that certain financial assistances would be provided to the families beginning from the birth of a girl child till her marriage at the age of 18 year. “Financial assistances would be credited to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through DBT at the time of the birth, again when she goes into 11th class. When she attains 18 years of age, a pump sum amount would be given for her marriage expenses,” said the CM explaining the model.
He also called on contributions from all stakeholders while underlining poor performance of five districts namely Godda, Deoghar, Koderma, Giridih and Palamu and directed officials to hold awareness programmes and rallies over there to generate public awareness.
“Poverty, migration, malnutrition besides child marriage have been major concerns for the State and it went up during 14 years of mismanagement. We took up all these menaces as challenge soon after coming to power and I am happy that figures of infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and other indicators have recorded considerable progress in last four years,” said the CM while recalling the contribution of women in every walk of life.
Also present on the occasion was Yasmin Ali Haque who lauded the role played by the State Government in mitigating child marriage cases.