TS to disband Bangarutalli

The Telangana government is of the view that the continuation of Bangarutalli has no relevance after launching Kalyana Laxmi scheme which provides financial assistance of Rs 51,000 to perform marriage of girl child belonging to poor families from the SC, ST and BC communities

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is making a move to scrap the much-touted Girl Child Protection Scheme (GSPC) – Bangarutalli - launched in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. This scheme has statutory status and had benefitted about one lakh people. All those who have been getting the benefits under the scheme are left in the lurch with the government stopping payments to them for the past 18 months and they are now making rounds to the secretariat.

Bangarutalli scheme is meant for taking care of the girl child in every poor household from her birth till she completes her graduation. As per the scheme, the government would deposit Rs 2,500 in her bank account soon after a woman gives birth to a baby girl. This is to be followed by depositing Rs 1000 for the first two years at the time of immunization. An amount of Rs 1,500 will be given every year to the family through Anganwadis from third year to fifth year. At the time of admission to a school, Rs 2,000 would be given and would continue till fifth standard. An amount of Rs 2,500 would be given from sixth to eighth standard, Rs 3,000 for ninth and tenth standard.

Under the scheme, the girl child would get Rs 3,500 each year in Intermediate and Rs 4,000 a year during her graduation. At the time of marriage every girl would be given Rs 25,000 towards expenses.

After the division of the state, the Telangana government had put the scheme in cold storage and did not allocate any funds in the 2014 and 2015 budget and did not release any money due to the beneficiaries.

It may be noted here that AP is a step ahead of the Centre in giving statutory status to Bangarutalli scheme that was meant to change the lives of female children. Prime Minister Narender Modi had launched “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” (BBBP) Yojana (save daughter, educate daughter) in January 2015.

Talking to The Hans India, officials admitted that Bangarutalli scheme did help many girl children. It had seen a phenomenal increase in the institutional deliveries in districts like Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy. This scheme encouraged poor to deliver girl child and also helped in containing abortions.

The government is learnt to have asked the Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) Department to stop releasing funds for the scheme. The department is also learnt to have been asked to send a letter to the CMO to disband the scheme.

The government is of the view that the continuation of Bangarutalli had no relevance after launching Kalyana Laxmi scheme which provides financial assistance of Rs 51,000 to perform marriage of girl child belonging to poor families from the SC, ST and BC communities, the official explained.

Another important reason for discontinuing the scheme was the TS government does not want to continue the girl child welfare programme launched by the previous Congress government, the source said. The official further said apart from the one lakh who had been enjoying the benefits before bifurcation, another 70,000 applications had come to the department but they have been kept pending with SERP ( Society for Elimination of Poverty ), the nodal agency for implementing the girl child scheme.

Till recently, the SERP had received applications from poor through Anganwadi workers in the districts. But none of them were registered under the scheme on the direction of the government. Meanwhile, the WD&CW department was flooded with queries from the beneficiaries over the stoppage of release of incentives. Over Rs 7 crore dues were pending, the sources said.