‘Scholarship for Dalit school girls must continue’

The Hindu: New Delhi: Sunday, February 04, 2018.

Meet calls for fixing irregularities in implementation of scholarship scheme

The National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education, which was introduced in 2008-09 to prevent dropouts among school girls, mainly from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, must be properly implemented and continued, said speakers at a conference organised here on Saturday.

S. Karuppiah, State general secretary, Dalit Liberation Movement Tamil Nadu, who has been bringing out irregularities in implementation of the scheme through Right to Information (RTI) Act, said almost none of the intended beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu had received the scheme’s benefits since its inception. According to the scheme, ₹ 3,000 will be put in as fixed deposit in a bank by the Union government when a girl eligible under the scheme enters Class IX. The matured amount will be credited to the girl’s account once she completes Class X and turns 18.

Mr. Karuppiah alleged that irregularities, lack of fund allocation over the years by the Union government, and lackadaisical approach of the State government had resulted in the scheme not benefiting anyone. “Instead of fixing the irregularities and allocating funds, we hear that the BJP-led government at the Centre is planning to scrap the scheme, which is highly condemnable,” he said.

‘Dalit’ Gnanasekaran, State president, blamed the BJP for acting against the interest of Dalit communities, which, according to him, was indicated by the increasing number of atrocities against Dalits throughout the country. He said that the Congress-led governments, in contrast, brought out many schemes for the upliftment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.

J. Vincent, organiser, National Dalit Christian Movement, stressed the need for Dalit organisations to come together to campaign not only for continuing the scheme, but also fight against dwindling fund allocation in the Union budget for welfare of Dalits.

Protest in Chennai

The conference resolved to organise a protest at the Director of School Education’s office in Chennai on March 8, the International Women’s Day, to mark the day as a ‘black day’ for women and highlight the irregularities in implementation of the scheme.

Stating that like-minded organisations will come together for the protest, Mr. Karuppiah said that the Dalit Liberation Movement had also formed a five-member committee to monitor the implementation of the scheme. This forum organised the conference in coordination with Dalit Resource Centre and Social Awareness Society for Youths.