Girls' education in Bengal gets a boost with Kanyashree project

The playground of Kirtipur Nabin Chandra High School at a village panchayat area (Kamya Khamarpara in North 24 Parganas) near Kolkata is good enough to hold a football match. However, these days, students hardly get to play on the ground, as hundreds of newly-purchased cycles occupy the place.

Established in 1961, the headmaster of the school, Sadek Ali, has not seen such thick attendance in school in his career as a government teacher. Three years ago, out of 2,500 students, girls accounted for less than 1,400. Today, out of 2,800 students, close to 1,600 are girls.

With the Mamata Banerjee government doling out freebies, starting from cycles, shoes and school bags to students, government schools have turned out to be an attractive destination for a majority of rural school-going children. However, the biggest crowd puller has turned out to be the government’s direct cash transfer scheme for girls — the Kanyashree Prakalpa. Launched in 2013, it is one of the flagship schemes of the Banerjee-led government.

Data from Census 2011 suggest that West Bengal had an adolescent (10-19 years) population of 17.3 million, out of which 48.11 per cent or around 8.3 million, were girls. So far, Kanyashree has covered about 3.4 million. Under the scheme, unmarried girls aged 13-18 years enrolled in classes VIII-XII, get an annual scholarship of Rs 760. This apart, they get a one-time grant of Rs 25,000 upon attaining the age of 18, provided they are enrolled in an education institution. The annual family income of the beneficiaries should not be above Rs 1.2 lakh.

Notably, West Bengal has a high prevalence of child marriage, leading to high school drop-outs, particularly from IX  to XII classes.

According to data from District Level Household and Facility Survey, in 2007-08, West Bengal was the fifth-highest in child marriage. According to data from Census 2011, the state is home to nearly 27.45 million married women, among them 11.06 million were married below the age of 18 years. Of late, the state has seen a reduction in school drop-out ratio as well as in incidences of child marriage. “In the past two years, the number of girl students between classes VIII and XII has increased 15-20 per cent. Earlier, we would see a marked reduction in the number of girls in Classes IX and X,” says Ali.

According to West Bengal government data, in the secondary level, dropouts among girls fell from 23.06 per cent in 2012-13 to 19.79 per cent in 2015-16. Further, according to Kanyashree baseline survey of June 2015, conducted with a sample size of nine schools across three districts, the enrolment of girls increased from 9,021 in 2013-14 to 9,329 in 2014-15. The increase in enrolment significantly improved in the secondary and higher secondary levels. The number of girls dropping out of school reduced from 161 in 2013-14 to 71 in 2014-15, a reduction of 56 per cent, the survey said. Further, there was a 33 per cent drop in cases of child marriage.

Pushpa Ghosh, a Class XIII student at the school, has been aspiring to join the police force since childhood. A few months ago, when she got to know that under the Kanyashree club at the school, girls have the opportunity to learn martial arts, she readily enrolled herself in it. Within eight months, she learnt enough to teach her juniors the art of self-defence. Soon, she will get Rs 25,000 grant, which she would spend on higher education. Similarly, her friend Suhana Khatun chose to learn making soft toys at the club. After completing her education, Khatun wants to run her own business. At the weekly meetings of the Kanyashree club, the list of girls who have not been coming to school for a long time is also made. School teachers and the girls themselves then visit their homes to pursue them to come to school, says Ali.

The West Bengal government, too, has been increasing its budget allocation for women development and social welfare, as it increased from nearly Rs 700 crore in 2014-15 to about Rs 1,000 crore in 2016-17.

Recently, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund applauded West Bengal for its intervention in the education sector to ensure almost 100 per cent enrolment in primary education. The scheme was also shortlisted among the best projects in public administration by the United Nations for 2014-15.