5 Govt. Schemes Pushing Women Empowerment in India

Currently, the government and the public sectors are doing their part for women empowerment in India. Whether it’s about education schemes, providing cooking gas connection or enabling women to leverage technology, a few schemes have been launched by the government. They aim to empower women to be independent in their lives. 

Here are a few ground-breaking schemes that encourage women to think big both in urban and rural areas:

1. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana 
   

 

This scheme was launched on January 22, 2015 in Panipat, Haryana and aims to generate awareness as well as the efficiency of the welfare services for every girl child. The main objective of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana” is to address the decreasing Child Sex Ratio (CSR). Later on, this campaign has included the gender biased sex selective eliminations, propagating education, survival as well as protection of girl child. 

This Yojana is implemented through national campaign, covering all states and the UTs. The “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana” is the joint initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Human Resource Development. 

2. Mahila-E-Haat
   
   
   

Mahila-E-Haat comes under the Ministry of Women and Child Development and is launched in 2016. This is nothing but a bilingual online marketing platform that leverages the use of technology to help aspiring self help groups, entrepreneurs, and the NGOs to showcase their products and services.

This scheme facilitates the direct connection between the vendors and buyers, sanitization, training, advocacy, packing and soft intervention workshops. The platform offers a web-based approach to all Indian women of over age of 18. This Mahila-E-Haat scheme gives an easy sign in process and convenient payment models. This portal can be handled on a mobile device without any hassle. 

3. Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP)
   
   
   

The STEP scheme is announced to offer skills to women so that they can get gainful employment opportunities. It gives the right training sessions and competencies to women to become entrepreneurs. This scheme is open to every woman above age of 16 and runs through the grant given to an organization or institution including NGOs in a direct way. 

The STEP scheme will be available in any sector for communicative skills related to employability and entrepreneurship. They include agriculture, horticulture, food processing, handlooms, stitching, tailoring, zari works, computers and IT enabled services, embroidery works, handicrafts, etc. along with soft skills and skills required for workspace like spoken English, gems, jewelry, travel, tourism and hospitality. 

4. Mahila Shakti Kendra 

The Mahila Shakto Kendra was launched by the government in 2017 for rural women empowerment in India. This scheme provides opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition. The Mahila Shakti Kendra works through community engagement through student volunteers in the most backyard areas.

Every Kendra will provide an interface for the rural women to approach the government to take their entitlements through training and capacity building. This works at the national, state, district and block levels. 

5. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
   
   
   
   
   

The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana falls under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme. This is nothing but the government backed savings scheme for girl children. Under this scheme, you can open an account at any Indian post office or any branch of an authorized commercial bank anytime between the birth of the girl child and till the age of 10 by a parent or a guardian. 

Only one account is applicable for every girl child and a parent needs to deposit a minimum of Rs 1,000 into the account. There’s no such limit to the number of deposits in a month or a financial year. Under this scheme, every girl child can avail the interest of 8.6 percent. 

The girl child can operate the account once she reaches 10 years of age and she is allowed to withdraw 50 percent for her higher education at the age of 18. The account attains its maturity in 21 years after opening it. You can make deposits till the account reaches 14 years and thereafter, the account will earn only the rate of interest applicable.

Bottom Line –

These are only a few schemes launched for women empowerment in India. If you want to learn more about the women empowerment campaigns, feel free to visit 30 Stades at https://30stades.com/. At 30 Stades, you will find a great collection of stories that inspire, impact our day to day lives and compel us to think.