Rajasthan govt rooting daughters to soil, promote agri studies for girls

The Rajasthan government, to ensure women’s empowerment and further their participation in farming activities, is running a promotion scheme for girl students studying agriculture.

Women play a leading role in agriculture — from sowing to harvesting, irrigation, plant conservation, removing weeds, and storing.

The state government wants girls to study the latest techniques in agriculture and get formal training in them.

Agriculture Department Joint Director G L Kumawat said under this scheme, girls studying agriculture in classes XI and XII were given Rs 5,000 a year while those with subjects such as horticulture, dairy, agriculture, engineering, and food processing in graduation and post-graduation were given Rs 12,000 per annum.

Similarly, a provision has been made to give Rs 15,000 per annum for up to three year to do a PhD in an agriculture-related subject.

He said 65,424 girls had been paid Rs 4,257.78 crore in the past four years.

The girls who are domiciled in Rajasthan and are studying agriculture in any government or state government-recognised school, college or university, are eligible for this scheme.

The documents required for scholarship are the Jan Aadhaar card, the previous year’s mark sheet, a domicile certificate, an e-signed certificate from the head of the institute, a certificate of being a regular student by the institution head, and a certificate of not taking admission for grade correction.

All these documents should be uploaded online.