After getting a shot in the arm with the success of the 'Kanyashree Prakalpa' scheme for the girl child, the state government of West Bengal is now contemplating enhancing the program by extending it to the educated women to assist them with their livelihood and career.
Shashi Panja, the minister for women and child development & social welfare said "For Kanyashree Prakalpa, the state in the coming years will focus on expanding the communication strategy to establish a more meaningful engagement with girls to understand their needs and aspirations and to devise innovative ways to empower them,"
Introduced in the year 2013, Kanyashree Prakalpa is 'a conditional cash transfer scheme'.
Panja further added "In the initial one-and-a-half years, the focus of the scheme had been on ensuring efficiency in the implementation mechanism, capacity building of all implementers and coverage of all eligible beneficiaries,"
According to her, the reasons behind the scheme's popularity are "simplicity of design, easy accessibility, targeted - communication strategy, convergent implementation and focus on raising the financial, social and self-worth of the girls".
She added that "Unlike other conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes for the girl child which give benefits over a multiplicity of outcomes over the life cycle of the child, the scheme's design has been kept simple and focused. There are two age- appropriate financial benefits and their purpose is immediately linked to the aspirations of its target group (between 13 years and 18 years),"
She signed off saying "The scheme is meant to empower girls, specially from socio-economically disadvantaged families, by giving incentives to them to continue education for a longer period of time. Thereby giving them a better footing in both the economic and social spheres,"