Effectiveness of Kanyashree Prakalpa towards Lifelong Learning in the light of Public Library Manifesto: Parental deliberation

Kanyashree is a milestone initiative taken by the Government of West Bengal to improve the income, livelihood and economic conditions of girls by providing financial assistance to all female students so that families do not have to take additional burden for their education due to pecuniary difficulties. The purpose of the programme is to raise girls from poor families, who are unable to continue their education due to poor economic conditions. After attaining the age of 18 years, each girl student will get an amount of rupees twenty-five thousand. It prevents early child marriage, reduces drop-out rate and empowers women to take part in the development process of the society. Information is essential to all human endeavours; so, it is necessary that information be provided to all categories of people. This is the call of many organizations, including public libraries who also place emphasis on access to information. The present study was conducted in the Jalangi community development block in Murshidabad District, where daughters of one hundred parents received Kanyashree, a one-time grant of rupees twenty-five thousand at the age of 18 years. The main purpose of the study was to assess the role of public libraries in the empowerment of women. It has been found that the age of the respondent (X1), educational status (X2), involvement towards the society (X5), association with self-help groups (X6), reasons behind the association with self-help groups (X7), availing bank loan (X8), reasons behind taking the bank loan (X9), nature and extent of savings (X10), attention towards daughter’s education (X11) and difficulties towards daughter’s education (X13) have clear implications on the level of perception of parents about the effectiveness of Kanyashree as a one-time grant towards the empowerment of girls. It has also been established that economic difficulties of the family (X3), housing condition (X4), availing bank loan (X8), reasons behind taking the bank loan (X9), expenditure towards daughter’s education (X12), difficulties towards daughter’s education(X13) and role of public libraries towards women’s empowerment (X25) had immense bearing on the level of perception of parents about the empowerment of girls. It has been further recognized that the variables like association with rural public library (X23), role of public libraries towards women’s empowerment (X25), available services of rural library (X26), activities of public libraries (X27) and up-gradation of public library (X29) had significance on the level of perception of parents to evaluate the function of public libraries towards women’s empowerment. Based on this, the article concludes that disseminating information creates an effect on the perception of parents to appraise the role of public libraries in empowering women i.e., the end-product of lifelong learning.