Sukanya Samriddhi scheme offers 8.2% returns on daughter's education corpus

The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a government-backed savings scheme designed for girls' education and marriage expenses, currently offers an attractive interest rate of 8.2 per cent per annum. Investors making the maximum permitted annual contribution of Rs 1.5 lakh can build a substantial financial corpus by the time their daughter reaches adulthood.

At the prescribed interest rate, consistent annual investments of Rs 1.5 lakh would accumulate to approximately Rs 71.8 lakh after the scheme's 21-year maturity period. This nominal figure represents a significant capital base for meeting major life expenses such as higher education or marriage costs.

However, financial advisors caution that the headline figures do not account for the impact of inflation over the two-decade investment horizon. At historical inflation rates of around 5-6 per cent annually in India, the real purchasing power of the accumulated corpus would be substantially lower than the nominal amount.

The scheme, introduced under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative, remains one of the highest-yielding small savings instruments available to Indian households. Parents seeking to build a dedicated fund for their daughters' future continue to view it as a reliable long-term investment vehicle, though calculations should factor in inflation expectations for realistic financial planning.