Haryana to give pension to parents of girls
Haryana has come up with a new way to correct the skewed sex ratio in the state. In a development that may go a long way in ensuring that the girl child is not a burden anymore, the Haryana government has now decided to dole out old age pensions to parents of daughters. --C Shamsher
C Shamsher
[ 28 Dec, 2006 0020hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
CHANDIGARH: What's more, the government has extended other sops to people in the state so that the girl child is protected both inside the womb and outside.
Consider this: free immunisation at the time of birth, no fees and free books at school, no marriage expenses and after daughters have left, there is old age allowance to take care of such parents.
After Ladli and Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Vivah Shagun Yojana, the Haryana government has identified at least 3,000 couples in the state eligible for pension, who only have daughters and are more than 55 years of age.
Once they reach 60 years of age, they will start getting the old age allowance as well. Throughout the state, there are at least 20,000 such couples in the state living below poverty line BPL with only daughters.
The scheme is primarily aimed at checking female foeticide and infanticide in this particular strata and making people realise that the girl child could be an economic asset in the days to come.
Earlier, Haryana had declared the year 2006 as the year of the girl child and the government even celebrated the girl child fortnight.
The Ladli scheme was the first one introduced to check the declining sex ratio. As per the scheme, a financial assistance of Rs 5,000 each year is given for five years on the birth of the second girl child in a family.
About 6,000 families have already availed the benefit of the scheme during its very first year. A target to benefit 90,000 girls has been fixed for the next five years.