Surat: Girls emerge as the major beneficiaries of the food bill scheme floated by state government's Gujarat Unreserved Educational and Economical Development Corporation (GUEEDC).
The scheme aims to help girls from families that have annual income below Rs 4.5 lakh to pursue their studies.
GUEEDC, set up three years ago after the Patidar anamat andolan demanding reservation in education and government jobs in the state, aims at carrying out various developmental activities for community belonging to unreserved class by offering financial aid for education, economic and social development.
It offers eight schemes which include education scheme, food bills, coaching help, tuition, competition exams, foreign studies, self-employment and loans for training as commercial pilots. Among all these schemes, food bill scheme (non-refundable) is by far the most popular scheme of GUEEDC in terms of its beneficiary numbers.
According to sources, between 2018 and October 2020, the corporation disbursed Rs 42 crore under food bill to over 35,725 students, more than half of whom are girls.
“In terms of beneficiaries , GUEEDC's food bill scheme – a non-refundable financial assistance – has the highest numbers and has served its purpose of helping girls from rural areas study further by staying in hostels and assisting their education expenses,” outgoing director of GUEEDC, Rupin Patchigar told TOI.
“The eligibility criteria to avail benefit is that the family income has to be below Rs 4.5 lakh and that the candidate should be staying in a hostel. The scheme provides assistance to those students who study in medical (under graduation), para-medical, technical and dental courses. Though, we made an exception for girls wherein we allowed girls who are studying in Class 9 to 12 as eligibility criteria,'' Patchigar added.
According to an official, financial assistance of Rs 22.3 crore has been given to 18,937 girls and Rs 8.18 crore to 6,891 boys in four months between August and November 2020. Earlier the scheme gave Rs 12,000 per annum to the students which from last year has been increased to Rs 15,000. The amount is directly deposited into the students’ accounts.
According to GUEEDC sources, total Rs 572 crore were given as loans, financial assistance to over 63,000 students in the state since August 2018.