Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is leading a campaign to popularise girls’ education and enrolment drive in primary schools of the state.

The campaign is being held in two phases. While the first phase is being held from June 16 to 18 and will cover 32,772 government-run primary schools and 44,000 balwadis in the villages, the second phase will be held from June 23 to 25, and will cover primary schools in the urban areas.

A 22,110-strong workforce named ‘Team Gujarat’ is executing this campaign. The team comprises the entire Council of Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Chief Secretary, all IAS officers of the state, senior officers drawn from the districts, all people’s representatives, and various other govt officials. The team has been divided into smaller groups and each group will cover five villages every day.

The government has also taken various other initiatives to popularise girls’ education. It has distributed ‘Vidyalakshmi Bond’ of Rs.1,000 each to 11 lakh poor girl students. The Chief Minister’s Kanya Kelavni Nidhi has received Rs. 44-crore from individuals and institutions, and by raising money through auctioning of gifts received by the Chief Minister himself. The construction of 50,914 washrooms in schools has also played an important role in decline in the dropout rate of girl students.

The annual campaign known as Kanya Kelavni and Shala Praveshotsav started nine years ago and has already started paying dividends. A comparative study of the Census 2001 and 2011 shows a 13 per cent rise in the girls’ literacy rate and 29.77 per cent decrease in school dropout ratio of girls.