IMPACT OF KANYASHREE PRAKALPA ON THE URBAN BENEFICIARIES IN WEST BENGAL

Abstract

The issue of ‘Women Empowerment’ has gained a lot of focus and limelight in recent times.       Genderisation is a deep rooted social phenomenon while huge disparity in male-female ratio, severe gender gap in their literacy rates, early marriage of girl children, low female participation rates in politics and labour force, etc. are some of the indicators of highly inequal gender relations prevalent in our society. There have been significant interventions by the Government of India to address this practice of gender discrimination and uplift the position of women in India. In the same tune, ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’, a conditional cash transfer scheme, has been introduced by the Government of West Bengal in the year 2013 to simultaneously encourage girls to continue their education on the one hand and defer their marriage on the other. The present study sought to find out the impact of Kanyashree Prakalpa on the urban beneficiaries of West Bengal and whether it is ushering in any significant changes in their situation or in the attitude of their parents towards them. On the basis of data collected from randomly chosen urban beneficiaries by means of interviews based on structured questionnaires, the study found significant impact of the scheme on the surveyed population.