Karnataka Announces Free Education for Girls till Graduation

Indian states are finally paying heed to girls' education. First Punjab and now, Karnataka has decided to make education free for girl students from class 1 up to graduation, in all public and aided private schools and colleges.

This will be implemented from next academic year but it doesn't extend to professional institutions. The higher education minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Rayareddi said:

"We expect around 18 lakh students whose parents' income would be less than Rs 10 lakh to opt for this scheme and are planning to earmark Rs 110 crore."

Karnataka to give free education to all girls till graduation https://t.co/Ez37Gu9b6S

— TOI Bengaluru (@TOIBengaluru) September 2, 2017

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Talking about how his scheme is different from the one implemented by Telangana and Punjab, he told TOI,

"We are not copying their schemes. It's a model one and a major leap towards women's empowerment. The scheme is for all girls unlike their schemes which are restricted to certain classes and income groups."

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He further informed that the government would reimburse all fees except the examination fee of girl students irrespective of their income. The students, he added, must pay the fee first at the time of admission. The government will then reimburse it.

He mentioned that the entire tuition fee will be waived even if students opt for popular women's colleges like Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru.

The scheme aims to uplift girls from the rural areas.

"It is mainly in rural areas where girls come from families earning less than Rs 10 lakh that the government needs to extend incentives. But the government will not discriminate between cities and rural areas and poor and rich. It is ready to reimburse fees to all girl students," he said.

Read also: Punjab Govt Announces Free Education For Girls From Nursery To PhD

Other states endeavouring to promote girls' education

Besides Punjab and Telangana, even the Jharkhand government provides free education for every girl up to Postgraduate level.

Last year the Uttar Pradesh government announced that it would distribute Rs 267.30 crore among 89,100 meritorious girl students under the amended Kanya Vidya Dhan scheme.

With such concrete measures to help girls seek education, the future of the country seems to be extremely bright.