GURUGRAM: The district administration, on Saturday, announced that the education department had identified 45 bus routes across five blocks in Nuh for providing free-of-cost pick-up-and-drop facilities to school-going girls.
The administration, officials said, is now ready to resume the Balika Siksha Vahini scheme for girl students, put on hold due to the pandemic, with the district roadways department set to run 24 buses on the identified routes.
“Haryana School Project Council had launched this initiative to further the government commitment to 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' and prevent girls from dropping out of schools. The service, however, was put on hold for some time, and we had received requests to resume it,” said Nuh deputy commissioner Shakti Singh.
The education and roadways departments carried out consultations to decide the bus routes. Till now, the scheme was only for school-going girls, but it will get clubbed with the higher education department project of providing free transportation for college-going women in the rural areas.
On Friday, TOI reported that the education department and the Haryana roadways department, jointly, will roll out 550 buses for college-going women this month. All the buses will be accessible to both school and college-going students.
“Over 40 routes will be serviced by 24 buses. Earlier, these buses got availed by the school-going girls, but now, even college-going women can use them. We have clubbed the routes for maximum utilisation of resources,” said a roadways department official.
The district education department claimed that free transportation would prevent women from dropping out, particularly during secondary education. “Transportation challenges are one of the major reasons behind dropouts. The free bus service would improve the retention rate of girls at the school level but also help many women to continue higher studies in colleges far away from their villages,” said Nuh district elementary education officer Kapil Punia.
