24L 'ghost' beneficiaries detected, ministry stops dropout scheme for girls

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, June 18

About 24 lakh ghost beneficiaries were found to be taking benefits under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls of the Ministry of Women and Child Development until last year.

The scheme, meant for girls in the 11-14 age bracket who dropped out of schools, had to be discontinued in March 2022, when the ministry realised that the scheme was not yielding the results.

Under the scheme, every out-of-school registered beneficiary was provided with supplementary nutrition similar to that of pregnant women and lactating mothers. The nutrition was provided in the form of take-home rations or hot-cooked meals. Besides, several health benefits were also provided under the scheme.

The ghost beneficiaries came to the fore in 2019, when the data of adolescent girls was compared with the school dropout data of the Education Ministry. Alarmed by the mismatch in numbers, the Ministry of Women and Child Development ordered the states/UTs to furnish documentary proof of the registered beneficiaries.

It was found that of the 25 lakh beneficiaries, only 6 lakh girls had documents. Subsequently, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani had ordered Aadhaar seeding of the remaining beneficiaries.

In 2022, when the scheme was discontinued, only one lakh beneficiaries were found to be genuine. They, too, were enrolled in the mainstream school education system later.

“The ministry was spending a huge amount on the scheme, but it was not yielding the desired results,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Wasn’t productive

• The Scheme for Adolescent Girls was meant for those in the 11-14 age bracket who dropped out of schools
• It had to be discontinued in March 2022, when the WCD Ministry realised that the scheme was not yielding the results