MP cabinet to consider women empowerment mission at next meeting

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh cabinet is expected to consider a new women empowerment mission to focus on convergence of women centric schemes across state departments. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief miner Mohan Yadav at celebrations on the birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, observed as ‘Prakash Parv’, at Gurdwara Nanaksar in Bhopal on Jan. 6 (PTI FILE PHOTO) Women and child development department miner Nirmala Bhuria said the department has proposed targets for the next four years and steps will be taken one one. “No financial crises will stop this mission,” Bhuria said. The mission, to be called Nari Sashaktikaran Mission, has targeted an improvement across six parameters, according to the department’s proposal. HT has reviewed the document. It has targeted a 5-point improvement in the sex ratio at birth from the exing 929 female per 1,000 male, a 5 percentage point improvement in the percent of women who have 10 years of school education from the exing 29.3% , a 5 percentage point reduction in the proportion of women married before 18 years of age from the exing 23.1% and a reduction in the number of crimes against women from the exing 78.8 crimes per 100,000 crimes and a 3% increase in the labour force participation rate among females from the exing 44%. “The mission will ensure access to various government services to women and girls. The integrated efforts will be made to increase economic self-reliance of women and economic participation in the society. Awareness will be done to increase male sensitivity for positive behavioural change towards women and girls in the society,” the proposal said. A senior government official said the department initially proposed to open hostels, day care centres, providing houses and skill development centres worth ₹6,000 crore but this segment of the plan was dropped due to financial constraints. The proposal is expected to be considered the cabinet at its meeting on January 24 at Maheshwar to dedicate the mission to Devi Ahilya Bai, a prominent ruler of the Malwa region. The Nari Sashaktikaran Mission is one of the four missions announced Madhya Pradesh chief miner Mohan Yadav; the other three focus on poverty eradication, farmers and youth empowerment. The government has already cleared the poverty eradication mission. Under the proposed mission, the government would encourage women to turn entrepreneurs through Pradhan Mantri Swanidhi and Start-up Madhya Pradesh. The government has also proposed to help women who receive financial assance under the Ladli Behna scheme open UPI accounts and hold online training to create awareness of safe practices. The government would also open waiting rooms for pregnant women living in areas with poor connectivity for safe delivery, promote prenatal counseling and institutional delivery and ensure the benefits of schemes related to safe motherhood to all eligible beneficiaries would be a priority, a health department official said. The mission also focuses on education strengthening anganwadi centres and schools and encouraging girls who drop out of school to attend open schools. There will be expansion of vocational training centres and e-learning platforms and increasing women seats in polytechnic institutes. The school education department will also make changes to the curriculum for primary and secondary school students regarding gender sensitisation and positive masculinity, the document said. Committees would also be set up at the level of the chief miner, chief secretary and departmental miner and drict collector which will have representation from all the departments concerned to track the progress.