Kolkata: The West Bengal government is planning to leverage AI in its flagship Kanyashree program aimed at reducing dropouts among girls in schools.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, this initiative is being planned to counter problems emerging from applicants making mistakes in submitting long application forms online.
Currently each applicant has to upload 30-35 information details on the portal, including name, address, bank account, among others. Inadvertently mistakes crop up, including wrong bank accounts and IFSC codes, as well as even 2 girls ending up with the same account numbers.
These issues often lead to a delay in disbursal of the amount under Kanyashree. Under Kanyashree 1 part of the scheme, all girls studying between 13 to 18 years of age get Rs 1000 as stipend yearly if she does not get married. If she continues stories after 18 without getting married, she gets a one-time stipend of Rs 25000.
Since every year, more than 1 lakh girls enrol for this scheme under the Women & Child Welfare Department, more mistakes cropping up were often leading to time delays. Leveraging AI will not only ensure accuracy of the input data, but consequently lead to more timely disbursal of Kanyashree benefits.
In 11 years of Kanyashree, more than 90 lakh girls have been beneficiaries of this scheme. No wonder, this was recognized by the United Nations as the top social scheme globally.
In 2024-25 itself, 15.75 lakh girls have enrolled for the Rs 1000 yearly scholarship. Another 2.1 lakh girls have received the one-time Rs 25,000 grant. The state has already allocated Rs 593.59 crore under this project this year.
