The Saraswati Sadhana Yojana, launched in 2019 by Gujarat’s Developing Castes Welfare department, provides free bicycles to girls studying in class 9. Under this scheme, all government and government-aided schools in the state are required to submit an online proposal on behalf of the eligible students. 

However, last year (2023-24), 82 rural and urban schools in Ahmedabad failed to submit these proposals, preventing the eligible girls from benefiting from the program.

The eligibility criteria for the scheme are based on the family’s annual income, which is capped at ₹47,000 annually for residents of rural areas and ₹68,000 for those in urban areas.

According to reports, there are often numerous complaints related to this scheme, as thousands of bicycles remain unused each year. Amid these concerns, the district deputy director’s office of the Developing Castes Welfare department informed the District Education Officer (DEO) of rural and urban Ahmedabad that 82 schools had not filed proposals for the year 2023-24.

As a result, the DEO has instructed all the schools to submit a proposal offline within seven days. While every school was required to submit online proposals through a digital portal annually, this offline submission has now been mandated for the current year.

Among the 82 schools that failed to submit the proposals, three are located in Dholka, one in Balva, two in Viramgam, two in Mandal, 16 in Daskroi, and 59 in Ahmedabad city.

Due to the negligence of these schools, many underprivileged and middle-class students in class 9 were deprived of bicycles last year. Therefore, the DEO has requested that the schools submit their proposals promptly, so the process of providing bicycles to students can begin this year. 

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