Guwahati, May 27 (IANS) Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asserted that Assam has been successfully combating the menace of child marriage, and the state’s model was being followed by others.

Earlier, CM Sarma claimed the state government’s ambitious scheme, Nijut Moina, to support young girls by providing cash benefits, has proven to be beneficial for eradicating child marriage from society.

He said, “The #NijutMoina Achoni is helping girls across Assam to realise their aspirations by saving them from the curse of child marriage and allowing them to pursue their education. Let’s hear from our little Bhagins on how this scheme has touched their lives.”

The CM argued that along with strict enforcement, beneficiary schemes like the Nijut Moina initiative have been uplifting the girl children towards a better future. The Nijut Moina initiative of the state government aims to cover 10 lakh girl students with an outlay of Rs 1,500 crore, and in the first year, over 1.6 lakh girls will get Rs 240 crore.

He said, “Assam has started a big initiative by launching Nijut Moina. Under this scheme, the girl students who study at the graduation level are receiving a monthly scholarship of more than Rs 1,000, and those who pursue post-graduation are getting Rs 2,500 per month to bear the education expenditure. In this way, we want girls not to depend on their parents to continue higher education.”

“We are anticipating that Nijut Moina will be able to eradicate the evil of child marriage from the state in the next few years,” he said.

CM Sarma further said that one of the primary conditions to avail this scheme is that the girl students will remain unmarried till they reach the post-graduation level.

“As the aim of this initiative is to eradicate child marriage, the girl students studying at the graduation level must remain unmarried till they finish their undergraduate curriculum. Once they reach the post-graduation level, there is no bar to remaining unmarried to avail the Nijut Moina scheme. At that point, they will reach their minimum age of marriage, and we also desire that the girls get married in a specific period and lead a happy life,” he said.

The Chief Minister also laid down another condition that no daughter of MP, MLA or minister can get the benefits of this financial support initiative.

–IANS

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