In a very rare if not unprecedented move, the India Post Department recently issued commemorative stamps carrying photographs of a young IAS officer and his junior colleague for coming in the aid of thousands of girl children in the Katni district of Madhya Pradesh.
The officials whose faces adorn the stamps are Katni District CollectorMr Priyank Mishra, and District Programme Officer (Women and Child Development) Mr. Nayan Singh. The two, along with their various team members, opened Sukanya accounts of as many as 31,904 girls under the `Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana’, and that too within a short span of 40 days.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr. Shivraj Singh Chouhan lavished praise on the two for this achievement. He tweeted: “I congratulate Katni district collector Priyank Mishra and District Program Officer, Women and Child Development Department, Nayan Singh, who have performed excellently by opening maximum number of Sukanya accounts in Madhya Pradesh. For this achievement, a postage stamp with his photograph has also been issued by the Department of Posts.”
THE SUKANYA SCHEME
The Sukanya Samriddhi Account (Girl Child Prosperity Account) is a Government of India-backed saving scheme targeted at the parents of girl children. The scheme encourages parents to build a fund for the future education and marriage expenses for their female child. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 January 2015 as a part of the `Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign. It currently provides an interest rate of 7.6% (for the Apr-July 2021 quarter) and other tax benefits.
While speaking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Priyank Mishra said “The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana has been running for a few years now, and commercial banks and India Post (which has opened avenues in form of banks) are encouraging more and more bank accounts to be opened in the name of the girl child in families.’’
The district administration of Katni, taking cognisance of this scheme’s importance, took this project up and encouraged its team to communicate benefits of the scheme to parents in the city and every village of Katni district.”
The scheme was rolled out in the whole of Katni district from 22 February till 31 March 2021 in which 31,904 accounts were opened, with an initial deposit of Rs 250. Among these, there were 1856 girls whose parents did not have enough funds to open a Sukanya account.
Mr. Mishra said, “Our team of around 3500 Anganwadi karyakartas and sahayikas worked, and went far and beyond to show people how this scheme benefits their girls in the long run.”
A POSTAL STAMP FOR THE COLLECTOR
With such a large number of accounts being opened under the `Sukanya Samriddhi’ Scheme, and that too in a short span of just over a month, the India Postal Department recognized the efforts and issued postal stamps carrying photos of IAS officer Priyank Mishra and his junior colleague Nayan Singh. As the postal department also is involved in securing the accounts of many people living in villages and far-flung areas – where they still depend upon postal services for important transactions- it helped in accelerating the scheme in the district. Releasing commemorative stamps for Mr. Mishra and Mr. Singh, therefore, became an attractive choice for the postal department.
While speaking about this honor, Mr. Mishra said “I am honoured that working in the capacity of a civil servant, and as the current District Collector of Katni, a recognition of this sort has been bestowed on me. I am humbled, and accept this honour on behalf of my entire team of officers, supervisors, `anganwadi’ workers and `sahaayikas’ who worked enough to make this a one-of-its-kind feat. Due credit must be given to district program officer WCD, Mr Nayan Singh, and Mr. P N Pandey who initiated this with me and worked to make this effort a success.”
On Friday, Post Master Katni, Mr Narayan Singh and Assistant Superintendent Mr RR Patel handed over the postal stamps to Mr Priyank Mishra in the Collectorate.
