A recent national-level study conducted jointly by researchers from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore and Shiv Nadar University has appreciated the role played by the Bangla Government’s Kanyashree Scheme in reducing a young woman’s chances of being subjected to domestic violence.
The study delves into the causal link between early marriage and exposure to domestic violence, and underlines the importance of policies to tackle child marriage by incentivising families to continue girls’ education and delay their marriage.
In this respect, schemes like Kanyashree Prakalpa have been found to be highly effective. Kanyashree uses economic (conditional cash transfer), social and awareness-building methods to sensitise communities on the benefits of delayed marriage.
The effectiveness of Kanyashree, a brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been endorsed time and again, at both the international and national levels. In 2017, the scheme has been awarded the United Nations Public Service Award in the category of ‘Reaching the Poorest and Most Vulnerable through Inclusive Services and Participation’.
It also won the following honours:
- United Nations WSIS Award 2016 in the category of ‘E-Government’
- SKOCH Award for Smart Governance and SKOCH Award of Merit for 2015
- Women’s Empowerment Award from the Bengal Government for 2014
- CSI Nihilent Award for E-Governance for 2014-15, and
- Manthan Award for Digital Inclusion for Development (South Asia and Asia Pacific) for 2014-15
- Currently, there are approximately 52.3 lakh recipients of the monetary benefits under Kanyashree (as on Nov 9, 2018).
The State Government celebrates Kanyashree Dibas on August 14, as a day dedicated to the empowerment of the girl child. No other government in Bangla has done so much work for the girl child as the Trinamool Congress Government.
