The ‘Babu Achoni’ is a proposed future scheme by the Government of Assam, announced by the Chief Minister, aimed at providing financial or material support to school-going boys. This initiative is intended to mirror the support being provided to girls under the government’s other dedicated welfare programs.

Key Features 

• Gender Equity in Welfare: The proposed ‘Babu Achoni’ is part of a broader commitment to ensuring that government welfare schemes benefit students of all genders. 
  • While schemes like Nijut Maina focus on girls’ education (often through financial incentives for enrolment and retention), ‘Babu Achoni’ seeks to support boys to address their specific educational needs and reduce male dropout rates.
• Context of Accessibility: The scheme is intrinsically linked to the government’s ongoing efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible. 
  • It complements initiatives like the recent bicycle distribution programme for nearly 3.17 lakh Class IX students of government and provincialized schools.
• Addressing Dropout Rates: The core objective of such schemes is to ease daily commuting challenges and remove economic barriers, thereby encouraging regular school attendance and significantly reducing overall student dropout rates across the state. 
  • The Chief Minister emphasized that every dropout is a loss for the state.
• Monitoring Attendance: Complementary initiatives, such as the proposed system where guardians will receive notifications if a student is absent, are being introduced alongside these welfare schemes to ensure greater accountability and engagement between schools and families, improving the scheme’s effectiveness.

The emphasis on ‘Babu Achoni’ signals the government’s shift towards a holistic, gender-balanced approach to education policy, covering both incentives and attendance monitoring.

Exam hook: Prelims Question

Statement MCQ: Consider the following statements regarding recent educational initiatives in Assam:

1. The ‘Babu Achoni’ scheme is a proposed initiative exclusively aimed at providing bicycles to female students of government schools to ease commuting.
2. The bicycle distribution program was recently rolled out for Class IX students of government and provincialized schools.
3. The proposed ‘Nijut Maina’ scheme aims to support boys’ education.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A) 1 only

B) 2 only

C) 1 and 3 only

D) 2 and 3 only

Correct Answer: B) 

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