The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to double the daily allowance given to girl students in civic schools from Re. 1 to ₹ 2.
The BMC deposits the allowance in a bank account opened in the child’s name. At Re. 1 a day, starting from Class 1, the allowance works to about ₹ 2,500 by the time the student reaches Class VII. From this financial year, the BMC has decided to add its own fund to this allowance, thus doubling the allowance amount.
A student who would earlier get ₹ 2,500 on completion of seven years of schooling, will now get ₹ 5,000 as per the new policy.
A child who joined school in Class II will now receive ₹ 4,400 instead of ₹ 2,300. The final amount is given in the form of a fixed deposit in the child’s name. The allowance scheme was started in 2007-08 to boost attendance and encourage girls to attend school.
A total of 3,23,899 students are enrolled in 1,195 BMC-run schools, which include 328 Marathi medium schools, 230 (Hindi), 201 (Urdu), 27 (Telugu), 63 (Gujarati) and 54 (English).
