Indian Express: Pune: Friday, June 28, 2013.
The National
Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education (NSIGSE) is yet to
benefit even a single girl child in the state, an RTI reply reveals.
It comes as a major embarrassment for the
Maharashtra education department, as it has been five years since the scheme to
promote secondary school enrollment of the girl child in the age group of 14-18
rolled out across the country in May 2008.
A reply from
the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education under the Right to
Information Act, 2005, reveals that no girl student from the state has ever
benefited from the scheme since 2008. The reasons are either non-submission of
proposals, or late submission. In one case, it was submitted, but the centre
called for a revised list, which could not be submitted by the state.
As per the
RTI reply, in 2008-09, no proposal was sent by the state to the central
government. In 2009-10, a proposal for 70,339 girls was submitted but on June
9, 2011, after the fiscal ended. According to the RTI reply, the proposal for
2010-11 was submitted within time, on March 3, 2011, for 25 districts. But the
centre called a revised list from 16 districts. The state government could not
submit the revised list for want of information from these districts, says the
reply.
In 2011-12, a
proposal for 20 districts was submitted on May 2, 2012 and another proposal for
5 districts was submitted subsequently. Again, they overshot the fiscal year.
Effectively, from 2008-09 to 2012-13, due to non-submission or delayed
submission of required information by the state government the beneficiaries
remained zero, says the RTI reply.
The scheme
covers all Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST) girls who pass Class VIII
and girls, irrespective of whether they belong to SC or ST, who pass Class VIII
examination from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (under Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan) and enroll in Class IX in state /UT, government-aided or local body
schools.
“A sum of Rs
3,000 has to be deposited in the name of eligible girls as fixed deposit. The
girls are entitled to withdraw the sum along with interest on reaching 18 years
of age and on passing Class X examination,” said the Directorate.
Sarjerao
Jadhav, chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher
Secondary Education, said, “We get information from the taluka and district
levels very late. Hence we submit information to the government of India late
because we have to send consolidated data from all beneficiary districts and
talukas. For 2013-14, the central government has not declared any criteria for
beneficiaries. Our letter is with the central government and we are awaiting
their reply. As soon as they declare the criteria and mode of operation, we
will send them the list,” said Jadhav.
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