Balika Samridhi Yojana (BSY) : Factors, Eligibility, Coverage & Application Procedure

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The Balika Samriddhi Yojana will cover girl children in families below the poverty line (BPL) as defined by the Government of India, in rural and urban areas, who are born on or after 15 August, 1997. Keep reading to know more about the scheme.

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Objectives of the Scheme

This scheme works for the welfare of the girls with the following objectives:

• Bring positive change in the attitude of the family, society or community towards the mother and the girl child
• Protecting and Improving the enrollment as well as retention of the girls in school
• Rightly raising the girl child till she reaches the legal age for marriage
• Helping the girls and motivating them to take up income generating activities for her own welfare

Factors of Balika Samridhi Yojana

Initially, under Balika Samridhi Yojana (BSY), there were incentives assimilated- a gift of Rs.500/- presented to the mother on delivery of the girl child. Also, annual scholarships were provided for the child’s education by the Government. However, the exact guidelines were not received for the scholarships.

Over the period from 1999 to 2000, BSY underwent a whole redesigning and restructuring of the benefits and provisions in order to ensure that prominent advantages are emanated to the girl child. Hence, now the eligible girl children under Balika Samridhi Yojana are inherently deserving of the following benefits:

1. Rs.500/- presented as a post birth grant amount
2. Annual Scholarships for the girl children born on or after 15th August 1997 and are registered under the BSY. The details of the scholarship are given below:

Eligibility and Coverage under Balika Samridhi Yojana

As the name of the scheme suggests, this Yojana is available for girl children only. Here is a list of eligibility conditions which are required to be fulfilled by the candidate to get the benefits from BSY:

• BSY covers both the rural and urban areas in all the districts of India. 
  1. For the residents of rural areas, families identified to be below the poverty line according to the criteria specified under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, will be taken as the target group.
  2. For the residents of urban areas, the families living in urban slums irrespective of their recognition, will be covered under Balika Samridhi Yojana. Also, families working as rag-pickers, vegetables & fruit sellers, payment vendors etc. are covered under the scheme. Moreover, according to the instructions of the Government of India, there are surveys conducted to check for the families BPL and lists are prepared under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) which can be followed to keep a record of the target groups.
• The Balika Samridhi Yojana benefits the girl children born on or after 15th August 1997, who belong to families under the poverty line. 
• All the benefits of this scheme are provided to only two girl children from every family irrespective of the number of children in the family.

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Balika Samridhi Yojana (BSY)- Application Procedure

In the rural areas, this scheme is executed by Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and in the urban areas, the same is implemented through functionaries of Health Department. The families qualifying for the benefits of Balika Samridhi Yojana must follow these steps for application:

• The Application forms for the same scheme are available with Anganwadi Workers (rural areas) and with the Health Functionaries (rural areas). Also, the same form can be obtained online but it is to be noted that there are different forms for rural and urban beneficiaries. 
• The form must be duly filled with all the required details
• Submit the form from the same platform from which it was obtained

Documents Required

The candidates shall provide the following documents along with the application form to enrol into the Balika Samridhi Yojana:

• Birth Certificate of the Girl Child- issued by the hospital where the girl child was born or by the Government
• Address Proof of the parents or legal guardian– Passport, Driving License, Electricity or Telephone Bill, Voter ID Card, Ration Card or any other address proof issued by Govt. of India.
• Parents’ or Legal Guardian’s Identity Proof- Passport, PAN Card, Matriculation Certificate, Voter ID Card or any other certificate issued by Govt. of India which validates the identity of the girl child

Other Terms and Conditions

The respective amount of financial assistance including the amount of post-birth grant and educational scholarship under the Balika Samridhi Yojana is credited into the account of the beneficiary. 

• The deposition of the amount is carried into an interest bearing account which is opened in favor of the beneficiary girl child.
• It is subjected that the amount must earn the maximum interest possible. Consequently, the beneficiary girl child is advised to look for saving schemes such as Public Provident Fund or National Savings Certificate.
• Only a portion from the Post-birth grant and educational scholarship can be applied to pay the premium on an insurance policy sanctioned in the name of the girl child under the Bhagyashri Balika Kalyan Bima Yojana. Moreover, the amount accrued under annual scholarship can be permitted to be utilised for purchases of textbooks, uniforms etc. for the girl. The remaining amount after required payment shall be duly deposited in the account of the beneficiary.
• When the girl child attains the age of 18 and obtains the certificate from Gram Panchayat/Municipality for her being unmarried on her 18th birthday, the agency authorises the bank or post office to allow her to withdraw the amount from the interest bearing account.
• In case the girl gets married before the age of 18, she will have to do without the amount of annual scholarship and the interest which has accrued. She will then be entitled to get the post-birth grant amount of Rs.500/- only with the interest accrued. 
• In case the girl, unfortunately, dies before attaining the age of 18, the whole amount accumulated in her account would be withdrawn.

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Key Statistics from Balika Samridhi Yojana

Since the time of its inception till 2005, Balika Samridhi Yojana has benefited more than 50,000 beneficiaries. Here is a year wise tabular representation of the disbursement of assistance:

In the above representation, the number of beneficiaries is a tentative number. The exact number may vary for every year. Before 1999-2000, the funds as per the Balika Samridhi Yojana were released to the Additional Deputy Commissioner by the Government of India. But, after a while, the funds were being released to State Government of India.