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Education for Both: Sons and Daughters 121

their problem till they grew up. Around seven hundred children
are found to be suffering from heart or kidney diseases, which
require expensive treatment costing around 5-7 lakh rupees.
The Chief Minister’s Relief Fund bears the expenses of more
than seven or eight hundred such operations. We send these
kids to the best doctors and save their lives. The government
also provides life insurance to these children. On the first day
of school, every child gets a life insurance of ` 50,000, which is
payable to his parents in case of any eventuality to the child.
College students are given life insurance of ` 1,00,000. The
Gujarat Government is the only one in the country to take such
intensive care of its children. Under the Vidyalakshmi Scheme,
every child gets a bond worth ` 1000 on the first day of school.
Thus, the child begins earning from the first day of school. If he
continues till the seventh standard, he is paid the money with
interest to enable him to go on to the eighth standard.

This is being done for the first time in the entire country. In
the past, governments used to pay ` 1,00,000 to the kin of those
who have died from alcohol consumption. They used to spend
money on such unimportant tasks and left the important tasks
for me. I put an end to this practice. I have declared that we will
pay money to little children only, so that the future of Gujarat
can be prosperous. We will give money to farmers so that he
can increase output of his fields and improve his life. The Gujarat
Government has decided to celebrate this year as the, “Healthy
Child Year.” We want the children of Gujarat to be healthy and
strong. We cannot afford having weak and ill children. Gujarat
should be strong and stout and to achieve that, the children
should be so. Children should be so healthy and charming that
they are irresistible. We provide children at Aanganwadis with
specially made nutritious chocolates, for which we spend crores
of rupees. Simply by having one chocolate a day for two
hundred days in a year, the child can be protected from many
diseases. The government has taken steps to show its concern
for children. Now it is the duty of the parents to send their
children to the Aanganwadi. The government sends a lot of aid
from Gandhinagar, but you can benefit from it only if you are