Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B. Vinod Kumar has called on Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi in New Delhi on Tuesday and explained the measures being implemented by the State Government to prevent child marriages and protect child rights.
He told Mr. Satyarthi that Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes being implemented in Telangana have brought down the incidence of child marriages drastically as ₹1,00,116 is being given for marriage of girls who complete 18 years of age and whose parents’ annual income is up to ₹2 lakh.
The scheme was introduced on October 2, 2014, with a financial assistance of ₹51,000 for the marriage of girls from poor families to help the families stave off their financial burden. It was increased to ₹75,116 in April 2017 and ₹1,00,016 in April 2018.
Stating that special POCSO courts are coming up in Hyderabad, Warangal and Mahabubabad, for protection of girls and women from sexual offences, Mr. Vinod Kumar requested Mr. Satyarthi to attend a State-level meet on child rights to be held in Warangal in October. Mr. Satyarthi expressed his willingness to attend the meeting.
On implementation of Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes, the Planning Board VC said that a total of ₹9,662.76 crore was sanctioned to 11,25,204 beneficiaries under Kalyana Lakshmi and ₹1.782.38 crore to 2,20,670 beneficiaries under Shaadi Mubarak.
Of the Kalyana Lakshmi beneficiaries, 2,23,096 belonged to SC communities, 1,36,567 to ST communities, 4,94,353 to BC communities and 50,518 to EBC sections. Mr. Vinod Kumar stated that Mr. Satyarthi had told him that he (Mr. Satyarthi) would make a special mention of the Telangana Government’s efforts to prevent child marriages at the UN meet on child rights to be held in the US on September 18.
