Girl education gets a boost; 25,000 join school in 3 yrs
Jhunjhunu is the other district in the desert state that will receive the PM’s pat on March 8, the International Women’s Day and third anniversary of the launch of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the expansion of the BBBP scheme and the National Nutrition Mission from the district.
This district in northern Rajasthan, about 200 km from national capital Delhi, has been selected under the category ‘Enabling Girl Child Education’.
Among other initiatives, Jhunjhunu started a major drive for enrolment in government schools with special focus on girls. The district added over 25,000 girls to the schools in the past three years, said Jhunjhunu collector Dinesh Kumar Yadav.
“Parents are willing to spend on boy’s education but not so readily on girl’s education. Our officials, lady staff especially, went door to door urging parents to send their girls to school,” said the collector.
Officials said they encountered concerns such as safety of the girls. “At times, we made them speak to the collector on phone to allay their apprehensions. Collector sir told them that they could have his personal contact number and in case of any untoward incident, could call him directly,” said Viplav Neola, assistant director, women empowerment.
In residential schools, he said, some parents were made to stay in the hostels for a night, so that they could be sure of the security of their child.
The collector started ‘Lunch with Ladli’ programme wherein he would go to a girls’ school every Friday and have lunch with them. “The girls used to ask him what his work involved, how he reached the position, and other questions. Some got inspired to become an IAS officer,” said Neola.
In addition, a ‘Collector Ki Kursi’ programme was initiated under which a girl with outstanding achievement is made to sit on the collector’s chair for a day. So far two girls have got the chance, one of them is an orphan who scored 88% marks in Class 12. The district also started ‘Collector Ki Class’, a free coaching programme for competitive exams. Of the 550 students attending the programme, about 300 are girls, the collector said.
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