“The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements a scheme namely-

Nai Roshni- “The Scheme for Leadership Development of Minority Women” with an aim to empower and instill confidence in minority women from six Minority Communities namely Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain & Parsi by providing knowledge, tool and techniques for interacting with Government system, banks and other institutions at all levels. It is implemented through Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) all over the country. From 2015-16, the proposals are received online on the Online application Management System (OAMS) Portal to improve transparency. Under the scheme, one week training non-residential (five days residential) programme is provided to the women by selected Organizations followed by their handholding for a period of one year. The training is provided on various training modules covering issues relating to women viz. Leadership of women through participation in decision making, Educational Programme for women, Health and Hygiene, Legal rights of women, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, Swachh Bharat, Life Skills and Advocacy for Social and Behavioural Change. Since the inception of Scheme two lakh and ninety seven thousand women received training and benefited under the scheme in 27 states all over the country at the cost of Rs.65.58 crore. During 2017-18, the online proposals have been received for empanelment of organisations as Implementing Agencies. The details of the scheme are also available on the website of Ministry of Minority Affairs- www.minorityaffairs.gov.in.

As per the revised guidelines of the scheme for the period 2017-20 with an objective to empower the women economically, the organization is required to identify those women who are willing (after completion of training) and can be further trained under any short term skill training so that they could get sustainable economic livelihood opportunities through suitable wage employment or self-employment / microenterprises during the hand holding period of training programme. Besides this, the scheme also encourages the organizations to identify the physically handicapped minority women and provide them some employment / Skill based training towards supplementing their household income. The budgetary allocation for 2017-18 is same as in 2016-17 i.e. Rs.15.00 crore.

The scheme permits a mix of women from non-minority communities not exceeding 25% of a project proposal. Efforts are to be made by the organization for having a representative mix of women from SCs/STs/OBCs, women with disabilities and other communities within this 25% of project proposal”.

This information was given by Union Minister for Minority Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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