Dhanlaxmi Yojana

Dhanlaxmi Yojana was launched by the Central Government of India in the year 2008 to meet the malaise head-on. The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme provides incentives to abjure gender inequality and prevent female infanticide and underage marriage.

Eligibility Criteria for Dhanlaxmi Yojana

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s target audience is the girl child and her family. The females in the family bear the brunt in a male-dominated society. The harmful effects are evident in the girl’s unbalanced development mentally and physically. It is reflected in the declining Child Sex Ratio and rising Maternal and Infant Mortality rates. The scheme is designed for a multiple benefit regime of cash incentive and insurance cover until the girl turns 18, and stays unmarried.

Girls are encouraged to enrol in schools and continue schooling until at least up to class 8 and delay marriage till attaining 18 years of age. In other words, the Dhanlaxmi Yojana aims to empower women with financial independence and raise their self-esteem to face the world on equal terms with the boys. The eligibility norm in the scheme does not discriminate on the beneficiary’s caste, creed, religion, or income to make it universally acceptable to all the girls in the places where it has been introduced. The eligibility criteria for applying for the scheme’s benefit are:

• Every girl child born after 8 November 2008 is eligible
• Every girl child is eligible regardless of her socio-economic status
• Every girl child in the family is eligible, regardless of the number of girls in the family.
• The girl must be covered under the immunization program.
• The girl child must be an Indian resident.

Salient Features of Dhanlaxmi Yojana

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s focus is to arrest the incidence of female infanticide and child marriage. It is common for the girl’s to be given away as a bride, even before she is an adult, in violation of the Prevention of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006. As per the act, the minimum marriageable age for a girl is 18 years, and the boy 21 years. A two-pronged strategy was adopted when the scheme was launched. Through the Dhanlaxmi Yojana, the Women and Child Development and the government of India provided an alluring insurance cover to eradicate female infanticide. It also supports the girl’s education by providing periodic monetary incentives.

Objectives of Dhanlaxmi Yojana

• The scheme primarily addresses gender discrimination issues through a set of financial incentives to the families, encouraging them to retain the girl child. It covers the girl’s education, prevention of underage marriage, and some medical expenses.
• The insurance cover is explicitly designed to prevent female infanticide.
• The scheme endeavours to remove the stigma attached to the girl’s birth considered a bad omen. On the contrary, it aims to highlight the girl’s worth as an equal family member.
• The girl’s education is meant to equip her sufficiently to grab the available opportunities and look forward to a promising future.

Implementation

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana was initially launched as a pilot project to cover the States most affected by the dual social scourge of female infanticide and child marriage. It targeted the low-income families with conditional cash incentives to promote the child’s education and ensure the girl’s well-being. The government implemented the scheme in states and their specific blocks that suffered from adverse Child Sex Ratio (CSR) compare to other parts of the country. The scheme was implemented in the following states and their respective districts and blocks, considered ripe for the experiment.

The Current Status

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana gained immediate acceptance as about 5000 families registered for the scheme’s benefits within a short span after its introduction in 2008. However, the concept caught on, and schemes with better features arrived on the scene to address similar concerns. Given the foregoing, the Dhanlaxmi Yojana is no longer considered for active implementation.

Benefits and Advantages of Dhanlaxmi Yojana

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana is an innovative scheme far removed from the various government-sponsored social welfare measures. It employs the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) mechanism by providing money to the targeted low-income families under specific conditions. The primary aim is to address the short-term income support objectives, and ultimately, promote long-term behavioural adjustments. It is accomplished through a multi-pronged approach comprising healthcare and education to accumulate human capital, especially the females. The mechanism is particularly effective in channelizing scarce resources to reach the socio-economically disadvantaged sections of society equitably.

Many of the free government social welfare facilities provided to the citizens often fail to percolate to the economically vulnerable. Education, Immunization, Healthcare, and Nutrition-related free schemes often remain unutilized. The reasons are not always appreciated, but it comprises fundamental issues like transport, medicines, uniforms, books, and the most critical, the family income loss. The girl attending the school for education, rather than supplementing the family’s income, is a significant barrier to availing these opportunities.  

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana scheme is designed to provide Conditional Cash benefits to the family, especially the mother when the specifically identified conditions are fulfilled. The different phases in the girls life conditionally covered under the scheme are birth registration (Rs.5000), immunization spread across different infancy stages (Rs.1250), enrollment and completion of primary schooling (Rs.3500), and finally enrollment for secondary schooling up to class 8 (Rs.3750).

All these cash transfers are staggered over the defined period and are worth Rs.13500 (approximately USD 210). In the final phase, when the girl beneficiary is 18 years of age, she is insured for a maturity cover of Rs.1 Lakh (approximately USD 1500). The following explains the monetary part of the Dhanlaxmi Yojana disbursed to the beneficiary:

Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s unique aspect is the involvement of multiple ministries and agencies working in tandem to provide cash benefits under the scheme. The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) to provide cash transfers up to class 8. The Ministry of Human Resources Development passes on the cash incentive in class 9 to class 12. However, the scheme is implemented at the ground level by the state government’s Department of Women and Child Development. Finally, the insurance component is managed by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The Process for Dhanlaxmi Yojana Implementation

The central government’s Dhanlaxmi Yojana is implemented in the target district and block with the help of the relevant state department entrusted with the task. The roles are well defined, with the central MWCD allocating the budgeted funds. The state has a dedicated account for receiving and disbursing the cash transfers to implement the scheme.

The beneficiary selection process is organized by the state department responsible for the scheme’s implementation. The following sequential steps summarize the procedure at the ground level.

• The district administration conducts surveys in the selected blocks to identify the Dhanlaxmi Yojana beneficiaries, stating their annual financial requirement.
• The funds are released in two installments after the utilization certificate is received.
• The state department authorizes the bank or the post office to register the beneficiary and transfer the cash benefit, subject to compliance with the conditions described below:
  • Production of Verification Certificate from the appropriate authorities entrusted with the scheme’s implementation.
  • A zero balance account opened in the designated bank /branch or the India Post office in the mother’s name, preferably.
  • The account is opened in the father’s name if the mother is no more.
  • The beneficiary holds a CCT Beneficiary Registration Card and a booklet containing blank verification certificates bearing distinctive numbers.
• The beneficiary has to produce a verifier’s certificate stating that the specific condition is fulfilled and is entitled to receive the cash transfer.
• The verifying authorities are jointly selected by the state and district authorities.  

The successful implementation of the program is accomplished in several well-defined steps, which kick off with the beneficiary identification by the district authorities. It is pertinent to note that nearly 7% of the scheme’s budget is consumed in meeting the administrative expenses for implementing it at the block level.

• The government authorities conduct a publicity campaign highlighting the Dhanlaxmi Yojana to attract beneficiaries.
• The authorities must also set up a grievance redress mechanism to help run the scheme seamlessly.
• A monitoring database is created with details about the birth registration, immunization, admission, and retention in school, to help consolidate and assess the scheme’s impact in the long run.
• It is also imperative that the state officers and verifying authorities meet periodically to share their experiences to chalk out procedures for the successful scheme implementation.
• As the case may be, the identified beneficiary’s mother or father approaches the concerned authority to verify if the relevant condition has been met and obtain a certificate to that effect.
• The designated bank or the post office will then transfer the specified benefit amount to the beneficiary’s account.

The Setup for Document Verification

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana scheme’s success is mainly dependent on meticulous planning, its execution, and finally, consolidating the data. The final measure of the scheme’s success should tell on the ground with improved SBR and CSR. The incidents of female feticide should go down as the girls delay their marriage up to 18 years or later. The schools continue to educate the girl students, and the incidence of school dropout is few and far between. A proper setup to facilitate the scheme’s implementation is critical to its success. The following grid explains the suggested well-defined verifying hierarchy and the supporting documents they should handle to ensure the scheme’s optimum performance.

Features Affecting the Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s Implementation

The elements of Dhanlaxmi Yojana are designed to remove the stigma attached to a girl child since birth. Gender discrimination starts right at birth, and she has to face this prejudice in various life stages. The psyche that a daughter is a liability is too deep-rooted to overcome the strong preference for sons. The dismal plight of girls starts to manifest in her neglect and is destined for a low social status. The Conditional Cash Transfer concept emerged as a viable means to combat this social evil. The central government launched Dhanlaxmi Yojana in the first phase in 2008 to shield the economically vulnerable families with girl children diverting their meagre resources to rear their sons.  

Implementation Review

In the initial implementation of the pilot project, the government did not assess the scheme’s efficacy to ascertain if it was working sufficiently on the target audience to impact the prevailing gender-selective abortion rates, arresting the incidence of school dropouts, or if the girls were delaying marriage till adulthood. The Government of India’s review meetings in September 2009 and June 2010 with the implementing state officials selected for the scheme’s launch lend valuable insight into the evolving scenario.

• Uttar Pradesh and Bihar failed to respond to the Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s benefits in the first year, though they were ideal for the scheme.
• Even in the second year of implementation, some state governments failed to forward any proposal.
• The states which implement the pilot project opined that the central government delayed its allocated und transfer.
• The implementation at the final stage was adversely affected by the absence of a standard operating procedure (SOP).
• The state officials had to depend on the information provided by the Anganwadi workers and the ICDS supervisor about the beneficiary’s age rather than the birth certificate.
• There was no clarity on the number of girls attending the school up to class 8, or the education department approved it.
• No grievance redress mechanism was put in place for the scheme’s smooth implementation.
• There was an unforeseen bottleneck in opening a zero-balance account with designated banks and post offices.
• It was suggested that the government sign an MOU with the banks and India Post to straighten this shortcoming.
• Implementation of the scheme was hampered in Naxalite-infested areas.

Impact Recommendations

The Dhanlaxmi Yojana’s implementation carries immense potential to raise the girl’s value within the family. The immediate impact was felt in the areas that implemented the scheme by improving compliance with birth registration, immunization, school enrollment, and delayed marriage.  Some of the critical takeaways from the scheme’s implementation are:

• The need is felt to simplify the process further with minimal documentation.
• The stages of cash transfer in six immunization stages clubbed into only one or two.
• Introduction of income-based eligibility to narrow the target audience to the economically weaker sections of the society.
• A proper mechanism is set up to monitor the scheme’s implementation with a proper set of guidelines.
• A standard operating procedure to be devised for a hassle-free cash transfer to the beneficiaries.
• The involvement of the Gram Panchayats in the beneficiary selection process will help identify target families better.
• The Anganwadi system to be entrusted with greater responsibilities for the scheme’s seamless implementation.

Why was Dhanlaxmi Yojana Launched?

Indian society suffers from the evil of gender discrimination from times immemorial. Indian families perceive a girl’s childbirth as unwelcome, while a boy’s birth is celebrated. The reason for this perception is that the girl is considered a liability rather than an asset. In many parts of the country, especially the western and north-west, gender-selective abortion is common, precluding the girl’s birth. If the girl is yet born, she suffers prejudice and a life of deprivation from education, opportunities, child marriage, sexual abuse, child trafficking, and domestic violence.

Both the central and state governments have ceased the matter and have devised social welfare schemes, especially the girl child and her family, to stem the rot. To resolve this, Dhanlaxmi Yojana was launched.

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