Girls’ admission under Pudhumai Penn to cross 1L

CHENNAI: The number of girl students admitted to Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in Tamil Nadu under the ‘Pudhumai Penn Scheme’, which offers financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per month, is expected to cross one lakh this year. The scheme, officially called Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Higher Education Assurance Scheme, under the Social Welfare Department was launched in September 2022 to provide Rs 1,000 per month to encourage girl students to pursue recognised Under Graduation (UG) courses, including medicine, engineering, paramedical courses, diplomas and ITI courses.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT Next the number of girl students enrolled in 2022-23 academic year was 91,485, up from 71,008 girl students in the previous academic year. “The girl student admission substantially increased by 29% last year compared to the previous year,” he said, adding that the scheme also helped bring back girl students from economically backward families who had dropped out.

This department is expecting a more than 25 per cent rise in the 2023-24 academic year, taking the number of beneficiaries to more than 1.1 lakh, the official added. While reviewing the details of community-wise beneficiaries, a substantial increase was found in the enrolment of girl students belonging to backward communities, including Scheduled Castes (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST), Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), BCMuslims and Denotified Communities (DNC), he said.

Last year (2022-23), 71 per cent of SC students, 41 per cent of ST students, 51 per cent of BC (Muslim) students, 35 per cent of MBC and 32 per cent of DNC were benefitted from the scheme. “This academic year, there would be an average increase of about 5 per cent for each backward community,” added the official.

The State government has tied up with the Bank of Baroda for the Pudhumai Penn Scheme beneficiaries. “The bank tie-up is to ensure that all transactions between the government and beneficiaries under the scheme are transparent,” he said. In addition, the account also offers personal accident insurancecoverage up to Rs 2 lakh per annum.