No child's dream should stall at a bookshop counter. Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 that his government will provide free textbooks to Class IX and X students across the state — and separately earmark ₹1 lakh in financial assistance to eligible female graduates under the 'Kanya Sumangal Yojana'.

Textbooks Through Class X — Closing the Gap at Class VIII

Odisha has for years distributed free textbooks to students up to Class VIII under existing state education schemes. The new decision pushes that floor two classes higher, covering the critical secondary school stage where dropout pressures — particularly financial ones — tend to peak. For families navigating slim margins, the cost of textbooks for Classes IX and X has historically been a quiet but real barrier.

CM Majhi framed the move plainly: 'ଏବେ ଅର୍ଥ ଅଭାବରୁ କୌଣସି ପିଲାର ସ୍ୱପ୍ନ ଅଧାରେ ରହିଯିବ ନାହିଁ' — 'No child's dreams should be limited by financial constraints.' The sentence is short. The ambition it carries is not.

Kanya Sumangal Yojana: ₹1 Lakh at the Graduation Finish Line

The second strand of the announcement targets the far end of the education pipeline. Under the Kanya Sumangal Yojana, eligible female students who complete a graduation degree will receive ₹1 lakh in direct financial assistance. The design is deliberate: reward completion, not just enrolment. India's higher-education gender gap is widest not at admission but at completion, and a cash incentive anchored to the degree certificate addresses exactly that drop-off point.

The BJP-led Odisha government, in power since June 2024, has positioned girls' empowerment and education access as twin pillars of its welfare agenda. This announcement builds on that stated priority in concrete, rupee-denominated terms.

Where Odisha's Move Sits in a National Pattern

Several Indian states have expanded free textbook coverage into secondary classes in recent years, and targeted cash transfers for girls completing higher education have precedents in schemes like Sukanya Samriddhi and various state-level 'Ladli' programmes. Odisha's move follows that wider arc — but the combination of secondary-level textbooks plus a graduation-stage cash grant in a single announcement signals a deliberate attempt to plug the pipeline at two separate leak points simultaneously.

Specifics around budget allocation, exact eligibility norms for the ₹1 lakh grant, and the textbook distribution timeline for the 2026-27 academic year are yet to be formally detailed. Those numbers will determine whether the promise translates into classrooms and bank accounts at scale.

Two decisions, one clear wager: that keeping students — and especially girls — inside the education system long enough to finish is worth every rupee the state spends getting them there.