A number of initiatives for the Welfare of Women and Children NATIONAL MISSION FOR HOLISTIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN PROPOSED MORE THAN 25000 NEW ANGANWADIS SANCTIONED DURING 100 DAYS A SOCIA

In order to fulfill its commitment towards welfare of children and women the Ministry of Women & Child Development took number of new initiatives during the 100 days of UPA Government. National Mission for Empowerment of Women proposed to ensure holistic development for women, ICDS was further strengthened by providing additional Anganwadis and more funds, new scheme initiated for the welfare of adolescent girls and for maternity benefits of women and Restructuring of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh initiated to provide micro-finance to more women. This was stated by the Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt. Krishna Tirath interacting with the media persons here today.

The Minister said that in order to ensure holistic empowerment of women the Government has prepared a proposal to set up National Mission for Empowerment of Women. The Mission will ensure convergence of various schemes and programmes for the development and welfare of the women. It will ensure single window delivery and monitoring of all round development of women. After consultation with the various stakeholders the Ministry has prepared a Concept Note, further necessary action is being taken to formally launch the Mission. This is the outcome of the recommendations made by the Group of Ministers. Formal structure of the National, State and village level would be set up to work with the issues of empowerment of women holistically. Beside this, the Government is also actively considering a social security scheme for the housewives in collaboration with the insurance agencies.

Highlighting the initiatives taken for the child welfare by the Government, Smt. Tirath said the corpus of the children fund will be increased. She informed that during the 100 Days period, the Ministry sanctioned about 25431 additional anganwadi/mini-anganwadis to provide supplementary nutrition to children and support to pregnant and lactating mothers beside pre-school education. The number of beneficiaries under the scheme has now increased to 863.13 lakh, comprising 712.38 lakh children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years and 150.74 lakh pregnant and lactating mothers.

So far during 2009-10 (as on 05.09.2009) the Ministry has released an amount of Rs.3620 crore under the ICDS Programme which include Rs.1820 crore for supplementary nutrition.

The Minister said that the Government is also working on a mechanism for effective monitoring of the working of Anganwadis for desired improvement in the delivery of the services.

The Ministry has also evolved a new scheme i.e. SABLA for the adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18 years to improve the health and nutrition status and to empower them. The scheme will be launched very soon. Planning Commission has earmarked Rs.4500 crores for this scheme for the XIth Plan period. Beside this, the Government has also approved continuation of the National Programme for Adolescent Girls for 2009-10 in 51 selected districts to improve the nutrition status of underweight Adolescent Girls.

A scheme for conditional maternity benefit, aiming to provide cash transfer to pregnant and lactating mothers for promoting their nutritional and health status based on certain milestones is under formulation in consultation with the Planning Commission and Core Committee. Planning Commission has already allocated Rs.4500 crores for this scheme in the XIth Plan period.

Smt. Tirath informed that in order to ensure the access of more women to the micro-finance, the Ministry initiated re-structuring and expansion of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh. The corpus of the organization will be raised from the present Rs.100 crores to Rs.500 crores over the next two years. Wider consultations were held during the last three months with experts. By the end of this month the report of the sub-group, constituted for this purpose will be finalised.

The Ministry finalised the legislation to combat the menace of sexual harassment of women at workplace after wider consultation with various sections of the society, which include a meeting with women members of Parliament also in August. The Ministry is also working for re-introduction of Immoral traffick (Prevention ) Bill in the Parliament.

The implementation of a new scheme the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) aimed at improving the well being of children in difficult circumstances including children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, has been launched. This scheme is to be primarily implemented through the State Governments. The Ministry has signed Memoranda of Understanding for implementation of ICPS, with three State Governments, namely – Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The Ministry has plan to sign such MoU with all the States by 14.11.2009 i.e. Children’s Day, she added.

The Ministry has also requested to the States to expedite setting up Child Rights Commission. In August, 2009, Child Right Commission has been set up in Karnataka. Delhi, Goa, Sikkim and Maharashtra already have such Commission’s.

She said that the compilation of a detailed report and revised summary report of Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure for India and States/UTs titled “Gendering Human Development Indices: Recasting Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure for India” has since been completed during the period of 100 Days of the Government.

As on 31st August, 2009, out of the Plan Budget of Rs.7350 crores for the financial year 2009-10, proposals to the tune of Rs.3715.96 crores, i.e. 50.56% of the budget has been cleared.

*****

NCJ/SR