Maharashtra Government Approves Lek Ladki Yojana; Aditi Tatkare Says Scheme Will Empower Girl Child

*This is in partnership with BQ Prime BrandStudio

The Maharashtra cabinet has approved the Lek Ladki Yojana (Dear Daughter Scheme), which guarantees financial support to the girl child whose family holds an orange or a yellow low-income ration card. The scheme offers over Rs 1 lakh to such children and their families over a period of 18 years from birth, with payouts dependent on the girl child's ongoing education.

Aditi Tatkare, who heads Maharashtra’s Women and Child Development Department and has been instrumental in conceiving the scheme and advocating women empowerment in the state, announced that it will “reduce the incidents of female foeticides and school dropouts, which will help in curbing child marriages.”

"I am sure that Lek Ladki Yojana will empower the girl child in Maharashtra," remarked Tatkare, who is also the only woman minister in the current state cabinet.

The scheme will be implemented from April 1, 2023, with retrospective effect. As part of the scheme, the government will pay Rs 5,000 at the time of birth of a girl child, Rs 6,000 on her getting admitted to a school, Rs 7,000 when she reaches class 7, Rs 8,000 upon getting admission in a college and Rs 75,000 when she reaches the age of 18 years. Thus, the government will be providing the girl child and her family a total of Rs 1,01,000.

Tatkare said the objective of floating the Lek Ladki Yojana is to empower girls in the state and prevent the girl child from dropping out of school because of perceived financial burdens on the family.

If there are one or two girls or one boy and one girl born in a family after April 1, 2023, the girl will be eligible to receive the benefit of this scheme. Both girls will be eligible for benefits if there are twins born during the second delivery, but either the mother or the father will need to undergo a family planning procedure.

The scheme was announced during the budget session in March earlier this year. Tatkare had earlier said that the scheme, which holds womanhood in veneration, will be “rolled out from Navratri,” an auspicious period that honours the divinity of Goddess Durga.

“We were getting continuous suggestions for this scheme, but now we have got the final nod of the cabinet,” Tatkare said.

The scheme aims to assist orange and yellow ration card holders from low-income families. Families earning between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1 lakh annually are allotted orange ration cards, while those living in urban areas and earning less than Rs 15,000 annually are provided yellow ration cards.

The scheme will benefit 2.56 crore families that hold the ration card in Maharashtra, of which 1.71 crore families hold the orange ration card and 62.60 lakh families have the yellow ration card, as per the Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2023.

Due to financial limitations, girls from households with yellow or orange ration cards are often asked to make compromises on education and drop out of school. The scheme aims to prevent this from happening by assuring that the girl child gets financial support right from birth up to the age of 18 years, based on qualifying criteria related to education, thus providing monetary motivation to families to support the education of girls.