West Bengal girls can claim ₹25,000 under Kanyashree Prakalpa: here’s who qualifies
West Bengal's Kanyashree Prakalpa scheme gives unmarried girls from low-income families an annual ₹1,000 scholarship between ages 13 and 18, plus a one-time ₹25,000 grant at 18, to keep them in education and delay marriage.
Girls in West Bengal who are unmarried, enrolled in school or college, and belong to families earning up to ₹1,20,000 a year can now apply for cash support under Kanyashree Prakalpa, a conditional cash transfer scheme run by the state’s Department of Women Development and Social Welfare and Child Development. The scheme pays an annual scholarship of ₹1,000 to girls aged 13 to 18 who remain in education, and a one-time grant of ₹25,000 once a girl turns 18, provided she is still unmarried and pursuing academic or occupational training.
Eligibility is not limited to schoolgirls in the traditional sense. Applicants studying in a school, madrassah, open school course, college, open university course, or a vocational, technical, or industrial training centre can all apply for the annual scholarship. Girls enrolled in sports institutes can apply only for the one-time grant, not the yearly payout. The state has also built in relaxations: girls with a disability of 40 percent or more, those living in a registered Juvenile Justice Act home, or those who have lost both parents can apply even if their family income exceeds the ₹1,20,000 cap.
The application runs offline through the applicant’s own educational institution. Students must first collect the correct form from their school or college head office: the K1 form, printed on light green paper, for the Annual Scholarship, or the K2 form, printed on light blue paper, for the One-Time Grant. Girls who already hold a K1 and are still under 18 need only a renewal, verified by their Head of Institution, while those who have crossed 18 must collect a separate K2 up-gradation form rather than filling out a fresh colored form, which risks the application being flagged as a duplicate.
A bank account in the applicant’s own name is mandatory, since benefits are transferred directly to it, and the name on the account must exactly match the name on the application form. Once the form is filled in with help from teachers if needed, and signed on pages 1, 2 and 3, applicants must submit photocopies of supporting documents: a birth certificate, an unmarried status declaration signed by a parent, a family income certificate, a bank passbook copy, and, where relevant, a disability certificate or proof of residence in a Juvenile Justice Act home. A birth certificate is mandatory for the one-time grant, though first-time Annual Scholarship applicants without one can rely on a school-certified age record initially.
After submission, the Head Teacher tears off and signs an acknowledgement slip from the form, which carries the applicant’s Form Number and serves as proof the application was filed. This number lets students track their status later on the Kanyashree Portal. The scheme has no fixed annual deadline given its ongoing, institution-led renewal cycle, but girls who change schools must ensure their previous Head of Institution transfers their Kanyashree record online, or their new institution will be unable to process further payments.
Kanyashree Prakalpa is administered by the Department of Women Development and Social Welfare and Child Development, Government of West Bengal, and remains open to eligible girls on a continuous basis through their educational institutions. Source: myscheme.gov.in
Wikimedia Commons/by Biswarup Ganguly
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