Empowering girls through financial independence…
Digital Desk: During a programme in Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, distributed cheques of the first monthly instalment for girl students under ‘Nijut Moina’ on October 6, 2024, intending to support education for women and to stop child marriages. This scheme offers financial assistance to girls in Class 11 to postgraduate level.
Under ‘Nijut Moina’, ₹1000 is given monthly to higher secondary students, ₹ 1250 to degree students and ₹2500 to post-graduate students. This scheme will aid female students of all financial backgrounds except for students in private institutions. It will be paid directly into their bank accounts for 10 months in the year and they will be closed in June and July when students are on their summer holidays.
This scheme has two primary goals: ensuring that girls finish school and arrange their marriages only after graduation. The scheme also extends to married women who are doing post-graduate or B.ED programmes, but the girl who marries before the completion of her undergraduate programme will not be able to continue with the programme. The Chief Minister said that in the next year’s budget of the state, he would present a similar programme for the boys.
With the help of the ‘Nijut Moina’ scheme, the government of Assam envisages to lessen of the dropped out rate, provide suitable opportunities for young women to study, and decrease the rate of early marriages, thereby creating a literate and egalitarian society.
