M A I N   N E W S

BPL children realise a dream
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Thanks to the Haryana government’s monthly stipend scheme, 10.4 lakh SC, BC and BPL boys and girls are on rolls at nearby government schools and have a real chance of making it big in life.

Kurukshetra, September 14
Kamal is no miracle boy who has set out to script a conventional rags-to-riches story. A rag picker from a backward class family of six which hardly ever manages the day’s meals, he has no illusions about making it big in life.

Barely earning Rs 30 a week from picking rags all day, he believed that the have-nots are condemned to watch from the sidelines - watch day make way for night, whirring pace of life and uniformed children going to school each morning.

His family needed his meagre earnings while he longed for a life of books, friends and school. Conflicting interests notwithstanding, every will finds a way. So did Kamal’s, courtesy the Haryana government’s innovative monthly stipend scheme for children of Scheduled Caste, Backward Class and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

Today, at 12, illiterate Kamal along with his three siblings is on Class 1 rolls at the nearby government school at Babain. With the government incentive, they are not only funding their education but the family is even managing to save a bit.

In the primary school at Ratgal, Brijesh, the son of a rickshaw-puller, was employed at a dhaba before this scheme changed his parents’ perspective two years back. Today, he’s among the bright boys of the class and his two sisters are also attending school. And, such stories abound and find reflection in statistics.

Unresolved: Disbursal of stipend to children from migrated families A few heads of government schools pointed out that they are facing a problem in opening bank accounts for disbursal of money under the scheme with banks stringent about wanting two identity proofs of the parents. “Since we are enrolling children on a regular basis, we sent forms of children from a nearby jhuggi cluster to the bank with affidavits of parents. The bank returned these, asking for the mandatory two identity proofs. We are in a fix about disbursing the stipend,” a teacher at Babain says.

From as many as 8.4 lakh Scheduled Caste children, who benefited from the scheme launched in 2008-09 during the first year, their number has soared to 10.4 lakh in 2010-11. After the scheme was extended to BC(A) students and BPL students in the subsequent year, there has been 12.5 per cent and 3 per cent increase, respectively, in the number of these students enrolled in 2010-11 over last year.

Under the scheme, SC, BC and BPL boys and girls get an incentive of Rs 100 and Rs 150, respectively, from Class I to V and the amount increases as the children move up to higher classes.

The stipend goes directly into the account opened by the school in the name of the mother of the children on a quarterly basis.

Sources in the government maintain that though populist, the scheme is bound to change the face of Haryana in the coming years.

“We have opened bank accounts of all 10 lakh children in the name of their mothers at zero balance and no operational costs. In education, since the gestation period is huge, the results of this scheme will be visible only after a few years,” explains the Principal Secretary, School Education, Surina Rajan.