42% girls dropped from Laadli scheme over 2 years
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The government’s show of solidarity with women wears thin after the CAG audit of the Ladli scheme. Many of the Ladli beneficiaries were automatically dropped from the scheme after their policies were not renewed. The policy needs to be renewed at every milestone in a girl’s education to be able to receive the funds. The audit, however, found that only 73,108 — 58.11% — cases were renewed out of 1,25,808 between 2010-11 and 2011-12. In the absence of proper monitoring, the scheme failed to support 42% of the beneficiaries who had enrolled for the scheme after birth but did not renew it.
Discrepancies were found in the use of funds as well. In 2010-11, a staggering Rs 110 crore was allotted for the scheme but only Rs 89 crore was spent. The selection of SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd (SBIL) as the fund managing agency has also raised eyebrows. CAG has observed that the women and child development department did not explore other options like LIC for maximum return on investments. SBIL gave only 6.5% and 7% interest during 2008-09 and 2009-10, which is around two-third of the projected rate of interest at 10.5%.
CAG’s survey of some girls’ only and co-educational schools in the city found that the beneficiaries dropped from 27.17% in 2009-10 to 20.92% in 2010-11 and to 18.30% in 2011-12.
BADLY-MANAGED SCHEME
Audit revealed that
51,835 cases
matured in 2009-12
The Ladli scheme was launched by the department without any data on intended benefi ciaries, without fi xing an annual target, financial or physical
The decision to opt for SBIL as the fund managing agency for the scheme led to a loss of interest of 1% to 2.5% to the benefi ciaries
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