Panchayat members succeed in changing the mindset of villagers regarding birth of girl children .
For the first time probably in the country, all the girl children in a remote village Haridaspur located in Kondapur mandal of Sangareddy district are going to have accounts of Sukanya Samriddi Yojana (SSY), a savings scheme being implemented by the Union government.
As many as eight newborn girl children of the village last year and 49 girl children born before that are going to have SSY accounts shortly. The required amount was handed over to panchayat president Md. Shafi and secretary Rohit Kulakarni by Collector M. Hanumantha Rao on Wednesday. The village has been witnessing a great transformation.
Its all began on January 1, 2020 when Satyavati of the village gave birth to Bhavyasri on that day. She was the third girl child in the family, and in all practical terms, she was an unwanted child. There were issues in the family over the third girl child. Knowing this, both Shafi and Kulkarni visited the family and counselled them saying there was nothing wrong in giving birth to a girl child. They celebrated the birthday of Bhavyasri and since then have been celebrating the birth of every girl child by distributing sweets and lighting lamps.
Impressed with the change in the village, Dr. Chakrapani, District Jail Superintendent Nawab Shiva Kumar, Dr. Shankar Babu, Ch. Uday Kumar of Mythri Foundation, Krishna Kumar, Principal, Government Junior College, Narayanakhed, visited the village a few weeks ago and extended their support. As a result the primary school in the village was painted and benches were provided. Dr Chakrapani promised free consultation at his clinic to all girl children and a fee concession of 50 per cent.
With the initiation of Mr. Krishna Kumar, his friends came forward and donated as much as ₹ 50,000 to open accounts for girl children born before 2020 in the village. Mr. Hanumantha Rao has handed over the cheque in a meeting held in the village.
“Haridaspur is the first village in Telangana celebrating birth of girl children for the past one year. It has greatly transformed in the last one year and become a place worth a visit. Finance Minister T Harish Rao will visit the village shortly,” said Mr. Hanumantha Rao promising to extend all the help to the village.
Under this scheme, a minimum of ₹ 1,000 per annum has to be deposited in the account, on which an attractive interest rate of 7.6 per cent is being offered. The accounts mature on the girl completing 21 years of age or when the marriage of the account holder takes place before completion of 21 years. The operation of the account is not permitted beyond the date of her marriage. Partial amount can be withdrawn for the purpose of higher education and marriage.
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