Over 48,000 children out of school in Maharashtra, reveals state's Economic Survey

Mumbai: Despite several efforts, including enacting the Right to Education Act, as many as 48,379 children were out of school in Maharashtra, according to the state’s Economic Survey. The survey for 2017-18, tabled in the state legislature on Thursday, said special training for 36,185 children was proposed, of which 15,529 were enrolled. Efforts are being made to enroll the remaining. [caption id=“attachment_4332901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] However, the number of beneficiaries for some of the state schemes have been increased, indicating the effectiveness of the state’s outreach plan. The number of beneficiaries increased to 1.97 lakh in 2017-18 from 1.89 lakh in 2015-16. In fiscal 2016-17, the number of beneficiaries stood at 1.97 lakh, the report said. But the beneficiary number dropped from 4.63 lakh in 2016-17 to expected number of 4.35 lakh in 2017-18, under the scheme providing free uniform and writing material to poor children from standard I to IV, the report stated. The Ahilyabai Holkar scheme has also reported a rise in number of beneficiaries from 16.50 lakh in 2015-16 to 19. 54 lakh in 2016-17 and 19.74 lakh in 2017-18, the report said.