November 14, 2018
Welfare of children – A priority of Bangla Govt
Today is Children’s Day. Children are the future of the country. To make proper citizens out of them, the Trinamool Congress Government has created a lot of schemes and projects for the children of the State in the last seven years that it has been in power.
A brief description is provided below:
Sabujshree: Under this initiative, every newborn is entitled to receive the sapling of a commercially valuable plant, the proceeds of which will support the child’s educational and other expenses in the future. Under this scheme, more than 15 lakh saplings have already been distributed.
Sishu Sathi: Under this programme, free-of-cost surgery is provided to children (upto the age of 18 years) for treatment of congenital cardiac diseases, cleft lip/palate and club foot. Since its inception in August 2013, more than 13,000 children have benefitted from this programme.
Free education: Education in government schools is free of cost, that is, no fees are charged, right from the pre-primary level.
Free school bags: School bags are provided free of cost to government school students from classes V to VIII.
Free school texts: Textbooks prescribed in syllabuses made by the Education Department are provided free of cost, from the pre-primary level right up to class XII. About 9.5 crore books in 389 subjects are printed and distributed every year.
Free Braille textbooks: School textbooks for the visually impaired in Braille are provided free of cost.
Free school shoes: School shoes are provided free of cost to government primary school children.
Free school uniform: School uniforms are provided free of cost to government school students from classes I to VIII.
Free exercise books: For the first time, free exercise books have been distributed at the rate of three exercise books each for students of Classes V to VIII, four each for students of Classes IX and X, and five each for students of Classes XI and XII. More than 340.3 lakh exercise books have been distributed to over 97.73 lakh students till now.
Mid-day meals: All government and government-aided schools have been brought under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
Drinking water and toilets: All schools have been provided with drinking water facilities and toilets, separately for boys and girls.
E-classrooms: Infrastructure for e-classrooms has been set up in 650 primary and 2,000 secondary schools.
Play facilities: Facilities for play have been set up in 990 primary schools.
Additional classrooms: To improve the infrastructure, in the last seven years, 96,428 additional classrooms have been built by the State Government and the building of 95,378 additional classrooms has been facilitated by the government under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
New buildings: In the last seven years, 586 new primary school buildings, 4,211 higher secondary school buildings, 2,733 Shishu Shiksha Kendras (SSK) and 171 Madhyamik Shiksha Kendras (MSK) have been built.
Computers in schools: To make students acquainted with the use of computers, 5,591 secondary schools have been provided with 56,060 computers.
Library infrastructure: Rs 17.6 crore has been allotted for improving the library infrastructure in 3,887 schools.
Laboratory infrastructure: Laboratory grants to tune of Rs 68.98 crore have been provided to 4,238 schools.
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGVB): A total of 51,259 students have been enrolled in KGVBs, which are residential girls’ secondary schools for the weaker sections of society.
Residential School for Deprived Urban Children: Such schools are functional since FY 2011-12. A total of 9,478 students have been enrolled, 2,507 of them in FY 2017-18.
Children With Special Needs (CWSN): For such children, computer-aided learning is being provided in 1,382 schools and aids and appliances have been provided to 93,644 students.
Model schools: A new concept of the Trinamool Government, model schools numbering 67 in total have been sanctioned, of which 51 are running. As a part of this, 54 school buildings have been constructed.
Girls’ hostels: Fifty-bedded girls’ hostels were approved for 139 government-aided and government-sponsored schools and 39 integrated BRGF Schools.
Scholarships for the talented poor: From FY 2016-17, Swami Vivekananda Merit-cum-Means Scholarship, at the rate of Rs 12,000 per year, is being given to students who have scored at least 75 per cent marks and whose family incomes are below Rs 2.5 lakh a year. A total of 87,685 students have been given this scholarship till FY 2017-18. Financial aid for talented but poor students is also given to those getting above 65 per cent in Madhyamik and above 60 per cent in Higher Secondary, at the rate of Rs 10,000 per month
Kanyashree: The Kanyashree Scheme was introduced in 2013 to empower the girl child through direct benefit transfer of a certain amount every month. Till class XII, Rs 1,000 is given per year and after that a one-time grant of Rs 25,000 as a reward for remaining unmarried till completion of school. More than 50 lakh students from 15,500 educational institutions are currently enrolled. it has received several international and national awards.
Sabooj Sathi: More than 70 lakh children from classes IX to XII have been given bicycles to commute to school under this scheme. The bicycles are green in colour. It has received the award for e-governance from the Central Government.
