Chennai Post Offices welcome Savings Scheme for Girl Child

Post Offices in Chennai have started a special scheme for the girl child called the ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Account’ scheme. The scheme is a new small savings account for the girl child which can be operated by her after she turns 10. The scheme was announced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in this year’s budget as part of “Beti Bachao — Beti Padhao” initiative of the Government of India.

According to press reports, the Department of Posts has plans to open 4.5 lakh accounts under the “Sukanya Samriddhi Account” scheme across Tamil Nadu this financial year.

The post office account can be opened and operated by legal guardian of the girl child till she turns 10 and then, the child will be able to operate it herself. But the guardian will still have the power to deposit money in the account. The account can be opened and operated from a post office or public sector bank, but the depositor can open only one bank account in the name of one girl child. But the guardian will be allowed to open different accounts for two girl children if the depositor has twin girls as second birth or if the first birth itself results in three girl children. The account can be cashed in only when the girl turns 21, or in case of her marriage between the age of 18 and 21, which will make sure that no underage marriage takes place.

The biggest incentive of this scheme is the 9.1 % interest rate it is offering for the current financial year, the highest in case of small savings account schemes in the country. In order to encourage the growth of this scheme, Government has exempted this account under the 80C Income Tax Act, 1961. These advantages have earned a healthy response from the people and many have opted for this scheme.

G. Shanthi, postmaster of the Besant Nagar Post Office, said, “People are very much interested in investing in this scheme. Yesterday we sold 500 applications.”

But, there are still some infrastructural problems when it comes to the implementation of the scheme. The software used by the registration of the applicants is provided by Infosys, and it takes around half an hour to finish one process. Thus, the scheme looks extremely beneficial for the public, but it has a long way to go to be implemented properly.