Madhya Pradesh launches financial assistance scheme for girls to pursue higher education

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday launched the state government's flagship 'Ladli Laxmi 2.0' financial assistance scheme to encourage girls to pursue higher education and make them independent.

Chouhan had launched the 'Ladli Laxmi' scheme in 2007, after he became the chief minister for the first time in 2005. The scheme provides monetary benefits to the eligible girl children to ensure they get good education and change the perspective of the society towards the birth of the girl child. "During my public addresses earlier, I once raised a slogan 'Beti hai to kal hai' (there is no future without daughters), following which an old woman pointed at me and asked whether I will be able to make arrangement for the marriage of girls.

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That question agitated me so much that when I became an MLA for the first time in 1990, I started funding wedding of daughters," Chouhan said at the launch of the Ladli Laxmi 2.0 scheme. On the occasion, Chouhan also transferred a total of Rs 1.85 crore into the bank accounts of 1,477 Ladli Laxmi scheme beneficiary girls to enable them to pursue higher education, and said it was a "historic" day. The chief minister said that after becoming Lok Sabha member in 1991 from Vidisha, he started funding marriage of girls from the money he used to get as allowances in his capacity as MP.

He added that after becoming the state chief minister in 2005, he had directed the officials to formulate a scheme with the aim of making a daughter "lakhpati" from the day of her birth by depositing money into her name in phases which amounts to Rs 1.43 lakh when she turned 21 with a rider that parents should not marry her off before she is 18 years of age. The scheme became very popular since its launch in 2007 and at present there are more than 43 lakh Ladli Laxmis in the state, he said.

The scheme has been linked to the education of girls and aims to provide financial assistance to them for pursuing higher education, Ladli Laxmi Scheme 2.0 is launched and the government will arrange for paying their college fees, the chief minister said. On the occasion, Chouhan also said that 'Ladli Laxmi Vatika' (garden) is being developed in each district of the state and planted saplings at one such facility in the state capital along with some beneficiary girls.