Class 9 student Sonam is thrilled she would no longer have to depend on anyone to take her to the market. Rizwana is looking forward to reaching school in five minutes, a third of the time it takes her to walk there now. And Sweety’s shiny new bicycle is the first that anyone has owned in her family.On Thursday, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood distributed bicycles to 130 girl students of a school in Janakpuri under the Delhi government’s Vidya Vahini Yojana launched in July this year.The bicycles are being distributed in phases to eligible girl students of Class 9 in government schools. Around 1.4 lakh girls are eligible to benefit from the scheme. On Thursday, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood distributed bicycles to 130 girl students of a school in Janakpuri under the Delhi government’s Vidya Vahini Yojana launched in July this year.“Going to school has become easier for me now. I am so happy. I will no longer have to depend on anyone to go to the market either,” Sonam said. “I was accompanied by my mother and I returned home on my new bicycle,” she said.Sonam, the daughter of a tailor, lives with her parents in the Posangipur area of West Delhi and studies in a CM Shri School.Another student of the school, Rizwana, said: “It takes me around 15 minutes to walk to school every day. But it will now take me just five minutes. I have been asking my parents to buy me a bicycle.”Rizwana’s father runs a salon, and her mother is a housekeeper in a private hospital. “We are four siblings, and none of us had a bicycle. But my brother knows how to ride, and he will teach me,” she said.Story continues below this adSweety Kumari’s mother Vibha said her daughter’s new bicycle is the first two-wheeler in the family.“I have three daughters and a son,” Vibha said. “My husband is a labourer, and we live in a one-room house 2-3 km from my daughter’s school. She is so happy. She says her school bag feels very heavy as she walks between home and school.”Sweety does not yet know how to ride a bicycle, but she has told her mother that she would learn in the four days of the Dussehra holidays.In his speech, Sood told the girls that true empowerment and independence comes from acquiring knowledge and building confidence. The bicycles, he said, was not a mere handout, but a tool of self-reliance that would help them to move forward with courage.Story continues below this ad“Your future will not be determined by your marksheet, but by how much knowledge you acquire and how confidently you present yourself to the world,” Sood said. He said the Delhi government had chosen to invest directly in the students’ welfare and modern school infrastructure rather than spend on multi-crore ad campaigns.“We chose the opposite path: we distributed bicycles worth crores of rupees and chose not to issue advertisements. The joy and confidence on the faces of these young girls is our real advertisement,” Sood said.During the event, students presented technological innovations, including a smartwatch equipped with SOS safety alerts, and a fogging drone designed to spray anti-mosquito chemicals in narrow lanes.The minister said that to promote scientific thinking among students, the government provides Rs 20,000 annually to 5,000 student teams across Delhi, amounting to an expenditure of Rs 10 crore every year.