Girls may get free education till they graduate

The review of the women’s policy has begun. Fauziya Khan, the minister of state for women and child welfare, has started meeting officials, non-government organisations and women to know their views.

The first thing educated women have demanded from the government is more incentives to ensure more women pursue education. “Most women are still not aware of their rights.
We got feedbacks from educated women and NGOs, and they have asked us to give more incentives for women’s education. We are planning to extend the free education policy for women up to the graduation level,” Khan said.

As of now, girls get free education up to the higher secondary level.

The government has got in touch with NGOs conducting studies on women’s education across the state.

“We want to understand the impact of the existing policy, such as how many girls have benefited from it; how many girls are getting enrolled; how many girl dropouts are there, etc.

The surveys are on, and we will be using the data,” Khan said.

Some women, however, felt that many girls in the cities, who come from high-income families and go to elite colleges, do not need free education.

“A lot of women who go in for higher education do not need free education. It is mainly in rural areas, where people are mostly poor, that the government needs to extend incentives,” Anjali Kanitkar, a senior faculty member of Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, said.

“Girls studying in professional colleges definitely need some incentives. But for ordinary graduation, incentives should be given only to girl students coming from poor families. The rich ones can afford to pay for education,” Kanitkar added.