Dhanalakshmi Scheme for Girl Child: Eligibility, How To Apply, Objectives, Benefits

Dhanalakshmi Scheme is a conditional cash transfer scheme for a girl child with insurance coverage. The Ministry of Women and Child Development launched this scheme on 3rd March 2008. This scheme was launched to eliminate child marriage by offering parents insurance coverage of medical expenses and encouraging the education of the girl child. 

The Dhanalakshmi Scheme primarily addresses gender discrimination issues by providing financial incentives to families and encouraging them to retain the girl child. It prevents underage marriage of girls and covers their education and medical expenses. However, the Dhanalakshmi scheme has been stopped and is currently not implemented in India. 

Objectives of the Dhanalakshmi Scheme

• Create a mindset amongst people to value the life of girl children and not treat them as liabilities
• Encourage girl children to enrol in schools, continue schooling at least up to class 8 and delay marriage till they attain 18 years
• Empower women with financial independence and increase their self-esteem
• Prevent female infanticide by providing insurance coverage
• Remove the stigma attached to a girl’s birth as a bad omen and highlight the girl’s worth as an equal family member
• Equip a girl to avail of job opportunities by encouraging her education and look forward to a promising future

Eligibility Criteria of the Dhanalakshmi Scheme

• A girl child born after 8th November 2008
• Every girl child, irrespective of her socio-economic status
• Every girl child in the family, regardless of the number of girls
• The girl child must be covered under the immunisation program
• The girl child should be an Indian resident

Benefits of the Dhanalakshmi Scheme

Financial assistance is provided under the Dhanalakshmi Scheme to the family of a girl child/children, especially the mother, in different phases of the girl child’s life. The financial benefits provided under this scheme for a girl child are as follows:

• At the birth registration of a girl child - Rs.5,000 
• For immunisation spread across different infancy stages - Rs.1,250 
• At the enrollment and completion of primary schooling - Rs.3,500 
• At enrollment for secondary schooling up to class 8 - Rs.3,750
• When the girl child is 18 years - insurance maturity cover of Rs.1 lakh

All these cash transfers are transferred over the defined period (excluding the insurance cover maturity amount of Rs.1 lakh) and are worth Rs.13,500.

Implementation of the Dhanalakshmi Scheme

The Dhanalakshmi Scheme was launched as a pilot project that covered the states most affected by female infanticide and child marriages. The government implemented this scheme in specific blocks in the identified states that suffered from adverse Child Sex Ratio (CSR) compared to other parts of the country. It implemented this scheme in the 11 selected backward blocks of the following seven states:

• Punjab
• Bihar
• Uttar Pradesh
• Chhattisgarh
• Jharkhand
• Odisha
• Andhra Pradesh

The Department of Women and Child Development of the state governments were responsible for implementing this scheme and cash transfers. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was responsible for the insurance maturity component.

The Dhanalakshmi Scheme got immediate acceptance since around 5000 families registered to obtain the scheme’s benefits within a short period of its introduction in 2008. However, the concept caught on, and many schemes with better features were launched to address similar concerns. Thus, the Dhanalakshmi Scheme is no longer actively implemented.

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