What are the Features of the Sukanya Samriddhi Account?

Over the past years, our country has made some remarkable breakthroughs and progress towards a better future for the country, be it fields like education, technology, business. But one aspect that has not been rectified even with a grueling past in that sector is, gender discrimination. The discussion where India needs to see change is with issues related to the girl child. Gender discrimination remains to be a big problem in this country. There have been a lot of movements founded for correcting this sector, and despite these measures, the sector of gender discrimination has a long way to go.

The Sukanya Samriddhi Account is a savings scheme that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program. This scheme was launched in 2015 to help parents for building significant savings to support their daughter’s education and marriage. This nation-wide plan is controlled and run by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Human resource development and Ministry of Women and Child Development. One of the main objectives of the Sukanya Samriddhi Account is to demolish discrimination against the girl child and to help in building a secure future for the girl child through education.

Some of the features of the Sukanya samriddhi account are listed below:

1. The Sukanya Samriddhi Account can easily be opened with the help of post offices and commercial banks which are authorised to distribute the scheme.
2. The minimum deposit that a customer can make to the account is Rs. 250 and the maximum amount which can be deposited is limited to Rs. 1.5 lakh per year.
3. Individuals can deposit in the account until 14 years are completed from the date of opening of the account.
4. The Sukanya Samriddhi Account will mature on completion of 21 years from the date of opening of the account, provided that the marriage of the account holder will take place before completion of such period of 21 years. Operation of the account will not be permitted beyond the date of her marriage.
5. Deposits to the accounts can be made through cash, cheque or online transfers.
6. Any girl child who is an Indian resident is eligible to apply to the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
7. This account can easily be opened by the parents or the legal guardians of the child to the time the child reaches the age of 10 years.
8. This scheme offers attractive interest rates of 8.5% which will fully be exempted from tax under section 80C.
9. Minimum of Rs. 1000 can easily be invested in a single financial year. Maximum investment of Rs. 1,50,000 can be easily made in a financial year.
10. The passbook will be issued to the customers.

For meeting the financial requirements of the account holder for the purpose of high education and marriage, account holder can easily opt for partial withdrawal facility after attaining 18 years of age.