Jagananna Amma Vodi – Everything You Need to Know

Inception

Jagananna Amma Vodi scheme was a part of YS Jagan’s election
manifesto for the 2014 and 2019 Legislative Assembly elections. In an
interview premiered on 2nd April 2019 with Vanitha TV, YS Jagan’s mother
YS Vijayamma said that the decision to implement Amma Vodi was first
taken in 2011. In 2014, the manifesto promised financial assistance of
Rs. 500 per school-going child, directly deposited in the mother’s bank
account. 

During the Odarpu Yatra and subsequently the Praja Sankalpa Yatra, YS
Jagan observed that many families were not sending their children to
schools because of poverty. Mothers and guardians expressed their
concerns to him about facing problems in providing basic amenities for
their children. YS Jagan promised to help them out by providing
financial incentives through Amma Vodi. 

Objective 

The Jagananna Amma Vodi scheme provides financial assistance to
mothers or recognized guardians, from below poverty line households,
irrespective of caste, creed, religion, and region, in order to assist
them to provide for their child/children’s education. The scheme aims at
reducing dropout rates in schools and eradicating child labor in the
state by providing incentives to mothers and legal guardians. In order
to avail of its benefits, the parents must also ensure that the child is
regular and punctual. 

Launch Date 

09/01/2020
Second Instalment – 11/01/2021

Incentive

Yearly financial assistance of Rs. 15,000/- directly transferred into
the bank accounts of mothers or legal guardians. During its second
installment, Chief Minister YS Jagan announced that instead of the
yearly financial assistance, students from class 9th to 12th can opt for
a laptop.

Eligibility 

• The beneficiary must be a legal resident of Andhra Pradesh.
• The Family should be in possession of a White Ration Card issued by the Government. 
• The
  Mother of the child should be from a household that is below the
  poverty line as per the norms prescribed by the Government of Andhra
  Pradesh.
• The child should be studying in class 1 to 12 in a
  government or private aided and unaided school/junior college, including
  residential schools/colleges in the state.
•  If the
  child/children discontinue their studies in the middle of the academic
  year, they will not be eligible for the benefit for that academic year. 
• The beneficiary/Mother shall possess a valid Aadhar card or having applied and verified. 
• State/Central
  Government and PSU Employees, Government employee pensioners (including
  PSU, Central Govt, etc), Income taxpayers are not eligible for claiming
  financial assistance under this scheme. 
• Orphans and children living on the streets who are studying in schools through voluntary organizations are eligible.

What if you don’t have an aadhar or ration card?

If you don’t have a white ration card or aadhar card, the village or
ward volunteer will certify you as eligible, and after a six-stage
filtration process, your details will be forwarded to the Mandal
education officer.

Those mothers whose children are studying from Class I to XII, but
are not covered in the previous year’s list of beneficiaries, shall be
identified for extending the benefit based on the following criteria:

Total Amount Spent

FY 2019-20, – Rs.6455.8 crore 
FY 2020-21 – Rs. 6,673 crore

Beneficiaries 

2019-20 – 42 lakh mothers/legal guardians, benefiting 82 lakh children
2020-21 – 44,48,865 mothers/legal guardians benefiting 84 lakh children

Salient Features

• The scheme is applicable in all recognized Government, Private
  Aided and Private Unaided schools/ Jr. Colleges including Residential
  Schools/Colleges in the State from the Academic year 2019-2020.
• The
  yearly cash transfer of Rs 15,000 is done through Direct Benefit
  Transfer into the bank accounts of mothers or legal guardians. The
  amount is fixed and does not depend on the number of school-going
  children she has.
• From the academic year 2020-21, the State
  government will credit Rs. 14,000 to the beneficiaries’ accounts and the
  remaining Rs 1,000 to the DTMF (District Toilet Management Fund), for
  the maintenance of toilets in government schools.
• Students
  studying from class IX to XII can opt for laptops in lieu of financial
  assistance under the Amma Vodi scheme. The laptops costing around Rs.
  25,000 – 27,000 each will have 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard disk with
  Windows 10 OS features.
• Laptops with higher specifications will
  be distributed in order to cater to the needs of students pursuing
  engineering and other technical studies.
• If the laptops are
  damaged, parents can hand them over to the nearest village/ward
  secretariats for repair. The laptops will have to either be repaired
  within a week or replaced.
• The state government has also set up a
  toll-free helpline 1902 for students/parents to lodge complaints, with
  respect to this scheme.

Impact

With the announcement of the scheme, there was a 40% spike in
admissions. As per the statistics available with the School Education
department, enrollment of students in government schools in the 2018-19
academic year was 37,20,988, and in the 2019-20 academic year, it
increased to 38,18,927. For 2020-21, over 42.46 lakh students have
enrolled in government/government-aided schools.

Process

The school education department has fixed a timeline for the
collection of details, confirmation, rectification of errors if found,
and preparation of the list of eligible beneficiaries. The students are
selected after undergoing a rigorous six-stage filtration process and
the list of mothers/guardians is released digitally.

Any discrepancies in details are sorted out by the school principals.
Complaints regarding the eligibility of a beneficiary are sent to the
Joint Collector for appropriate redressal. The final list, after
corrections, is displayed on the portal –  https://jaganannaammavodi.ap.gov.in/
and in all the village/ward secretariats. User IDs and passwords are
given to the principals of government and private schools to upload
details of students on the online portal, with a deadline to submit. 

Guidelines released by the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the year 2020-21 are as follows – 

• Preliminary actions to take place from 9th December 2020 to 25th December 2020.
• All the principals are required to register and update the details of students from 10th December 2020 to 20th December 2020.
• The
  list of all the eligible mothers/guardians whose children are enrolled
  in the portal will be reviewed and released on 15th December 2020. 
• All the students whose details are updated before 15th December 2020 will be provided to APCFSS on 15th December 2020.
• All the above details will also be displayed on the school notice board and all the village/ward secretariats across the state.

How To Apply

• The application form for the Jagananna Amma Vodi scheme can be obtained at the nearest village/ward secretariat. 
• It is also available online on the official website – https://jaganannaammavodi.ap.gov.in/
• After
  filling the form and attaching the relevant documents, the applicants
  can submit it to the nearest government office or the ward/village
  secretariat.
• The form can also be submitted online through the official portal.

The final list of eligible beneficiaries will be made available each
year at schools and village/ward secretariats across the state.

Documents Required

• School ID card
• Aadhar card
• Address Proof (eg. Voter ID card, Aadhar card, electricity bill, etc)
• Ration card
• Passport size photograph of the mother
• Birth certificate
• Bank account details (mother or guardian)

Helpline 

Helpline number – 1902

Address:
4th Floor, B block, VTPS Rd, Bhimaraju Gutta,
Ibrahimpatnam, Andhra Pradesh 521456.
Phone: 9705655349, 9705454869
Email : apcse.@ap.gov.in