Schemes for Economic Empowerment of Poor Women
The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing various schemes for women’s economic empowerment namely, Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), Support to Training & Employment Programme for Women (STEP), Priyadarshini besides National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY).
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) was set up in 1993 to meet the credit needs of poor women in the informal sector for income generation and household activities. Since its inception upto 31.1.2013, RMK has sanctioned Rs. 342.90 crore microfinance loans and released Rs. 278.89 crore benefiting over 7.19 lakh poor women beneficiaries.
The Ministry has been administering the Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) as a Central Sector Scheme since 1986-87, to provide sustainable employment and income generation for marginalized and asset-less rural and urban poor women across the country. During last ten years, 3.90 lakh women beneficiaries have been benefitted under the STEP Scheme.
Priyadarshini, is a Self Help Group (SHG) based project implemented by the Ministry for holistic empowerment of women and adolescent girls. The actual implementation of the scheme was started in April, 2011. The scheme is being implemented in 7 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Since inception, 56738 beneficiaries have been covered under Priyadarshini scheme.
Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) is a Conditional Cash Transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating (P&L) women introduced in the October 2010 to contribute to better enabling environment by providing cash incentives for improved health and nutrition to pregnant and nursing mothers. 6.74 lakh women beneficiaries have been covered under the IGMSY scheme since inception.
National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) is an initiative of the Government of India for empowering women holistically, with a mandate to strengthen inter-sectoral convergence.
Further, the Government is also implementing other schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Rural Livelihood Mission, etc for economic empowerment.
This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.
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