ILO team to visit Bengal to study welfare schemes

Kolkata, April 30 A team from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will be visiting West Bengal to study the details of certain welfare schemes introduced by the state government.

Sources from the state government said that a three-member team from ILO will be arriving at Kolkata on May 2.

"First they will be having a meeting with the select officials of the state government and in the next few days they will be travelling to certain districts to review and study the implementation of select welfare schemes introduced by the state government," said a government official.

It is learnt that the state government welfare, which the ILO representatives have evinced special interest as a subject for review, is the 'Kanyashree Prakalpa', a conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at improving the life girl children in the state from economically backwards sections and provide them with the opportunity to continue with their studies instead of opting for marriage at early ages.

"The ILO representatives will visit certain schools in some Kolkata- adjacent districts of West Bengal. Besides reviewing the implementation of the project they are also expected to interact with certain beneficiaries of the project to have a clearer idea about the successful implementation of the scheme," a state government official said.

Apart from the 'Kanyashree Prakalpa', he added, two other welfare scheme of the West Bengal government that will be reviewed and studied by the ILO team will include 'Rupashree Prakalpa', a one-time grant project of Rs 25,000 for each of these financial backward families to mitigate the expenses of marriage for the girl in the family and 'Lakshmi Bhandar Prakalypa', a monthly grant scheme ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for all women irrespective of their financial status.