Direct cash transfer scheme: Some cash in, some uncertainty

MILIND GHATWAI

When Priyanka Dhurve was told that her scholarship money had been deposited directly into her bank account, she was not quite sure what it meant. To let her satisfy her curiosity, she was advised to withdraw Rs 500.

So far, the 16-year-old of class XI had only seen her parents collect cash from her hostel or deposit cheques into her bank account. “Standing in queue only to ask whether the money from the cheque had been credited used to consume a lot of time, and occasionally I had to miss school,” she says. The school hours of 10.30 am to 4.30 pm coincide with banking hours.

A bright student, Priyanka scored 83.3 per cent in class X. She studies at a government excellence school and lives in a hostel for tribal girls. Her parents live in Nibhora village, about 45 km from Hoshangabad, and find it inconvenient to visit the town only to check her bank account.

Priyanka was among the first beneficiaries of direct cash transfers under the centrally sponsored merit scheme of SC/ST students. So was Hemlata Uikey, another student of XI living in the same hostel. Hoshangabad, Harda and Khandwa are among the pilot districts in Madhya Pradesh chosen for the scheme.

Hemlata has a modest background and is the only one in her family of six to have progressed this far in school. Her siblings dropped out after class V because her village, about 100

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