BBMP schools to provide health insurance for students

Starting the next academic year, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will provide health insurance for students enrolled in its schools and colleges.

The proposal has been approved by the BBMP council and is now before the state government for ratification. Special Commissioner for Education, S G Ravindra, said the scheme would benefit more than 16,000 children.

“We are in talks with nationalised insurance companies to discuss our options. The benefits of the scheme will be uniform to all students, from nursery school to degree college. Rs 1.75 crore has been allocated for the purpose,” the official said.

He said discussions were still in the initial stage. “We have not taken a final call on premium and other benefits. It should ideally cover all diseases and rather than just health insurance, we are trying to make it an accident insurance as well.”

“The scheme, if implemented properly, will benefit students, since most of them at the BBMP-run schools come from poor families. These students usually visit government hospitals for treatment and many a time don’t get enough care,” the principal of a BBMP school in Shivajinagar said.

“We want to ensure that all corporation schools have RO-purified water, first-aid boxes and CCTV cameras by the next academic year. “Some schools get basic facilities as part of the CSR initiatives, but this year we will include them in the budget. We want to encourage people to send their children to corporation schools and show them that these schools are just as good as the private ones,” Ravindra said.