The Government of India is implementing Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme which was approved in November, 2017 as a centrally sponsored scheme, for implementation during the financial year 2017-18 to 2019-20, to empower rural women through community participation. The scheme envisages community engagement through college student volunteers in 115 aspirational districts as part of block level initiatives; capacity building of women collectives in not more than 50% of the blocks in the aspirational districts; District Level Centre for Women (DLCW) in 640 districts to facilitate women centric schemes and to provide foothold for Betib Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme; State Resource Centre for Women to support the respective government in implementation of women centric schemes/ programs including BBBP. Student volunteers will play an instrumental role in awareness generation regarding various important government schemes/ programmes as well as social issues. They will cater to awareness about government schemes/ programs, training and capacity building for rural women and help in bridging information and knowledge gap regarding schemes and facilities available for rural women.
As on date, administrative approval for implementing the scheme has been given in 31 States/UTs. State Resource Centre for Women (SRCW) and District Level Centre for Women (DLCW) are functional in 26 States/UTs and 124 districts respectively. Student volunteers have been identified by 09 (nine) States for creating awareness. District level activities were approved for 220 districts in Phase-I (2017-18), 220 districts in Phase-II (2018-19) and remaining 200 districts in Phase-III (2019-20).
Further, Ministry of Women and Child Development has been undertaking capacity building programmes for Elected Women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions with an objective of empowering them to serve as catalyst for social change with awareness on women rights within the country.
This information was given by the Minister of Women and Child Development, SmritiZubinIrani, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
