The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has revised ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme Guidelines in December, 2014. The Ministry has been administering STEP Scheme since 1986-87 as a ‘Central Sector Scheme. The STEP Scheme aims to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/ entrepreneurs. The Scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above across the country. The grant-in-aid under the Scheme is given to institutions/ organizations including NGOs. The assistance under STEP Scheme will be available in any sector for imparting skills related to employability and entrepreneurship, including but not limited to the Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Processing, Handlooms, Tailoring, Stitching, Embroidery, Zari etc, Handicrafts, Computer & IT enable services along with soft skills and skills for the work place such as spoken English, Gems & Jewellery, Travel & Tourism, Hospitality. The financial assistance under STEP will be subject to the following limits:

The maximum duration of the project is 18 months and the maximum number of beneficiaries in a project shall not exceed 200. The financial assistance to meet a maximum of 90% of the project cost can be sanctioned by the Government of India. The remaining 10% will have to be borne by the implementing agency from its own resources.

Applications were invited from the eligible organizations for financial assistance under the revised STEP Scheme, 2014. Twenty three project proposals have already been approved for financial assistance under this Scheme.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in reply to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha today.

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NB/UD