This year is all about investing in the girl child, or so it seems, going by the tremendous interest the concept has generated. Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana’ this year, as many as 93,000 accounts have been opened till March 13 across Karnataka alone. The Karnataka Postal Circle is expecting the numbers to swell further by this fiscal-end.
Eager parents have been queuing up to open accounts across the 9,668 post offices in the State. For instance, Shivakumar, a driver by profession, stood in the queue at the Girinagar post office for over an hour to open accounts in the name of his two daughters aged five and three. “The flexibility to pay how much ever we can and the huge amount that it will yield at the end of 21 years is what prompted me to open the accounts in the name of both my daughters,” he said, sounding convinced about the scheme’s benefits.
The ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ tagline appears to have impressed many a parent. While the Bengaluru region is where most accounts have been opened, particularly in Bengaluru south, Karnataka Postal Circle officials said among the districts where there has been a goodresponse to the scheme are: Channapatna, Udupi, Hassan, Mysuru, Puttur,Karwar, Bagalkot, Dharwad and Haveri. A majority of those who have opened accounts are parents with daughters aged below five, officials said.
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To improve the reach of the scheme, the Postal Department officials have launched door-to-door campaign.