Lok Sabha Question No. 3654 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-01-02
Subject: Condition of Minority Women
Ministry: MINORITY AFFAIRS
Asked by: VIJAY KUMAR S.R., T. RADHAKRISHNAN, ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN, SUDHEER GUPTA, S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3654 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.01.2019

## Condition of Minority Women

## 3654 . SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR: SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN: SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN: SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI S. RAJENDRAN: KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH:

Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware of the condition of minority women in the country and the problems generally encountered by them and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has initiated any scheme/programme to empower and instill confidence in minority women and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the number of non-Governmental organizations who have been trained for this purpose;

(d) the funds allocated/utilized by the Government during each of the last three years and the current year for this purpose;

(e)  whether  his  Ministry  has  also  initated  any  scheme  to  empower  women  students  from  the  Minority communities by preparing them for competitive exams and if so, the details thereof; and

(f)  the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  increase  participation  of  Minority  women  in Government and private jobs in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI)

(a) & (b): Yes  Madam,  keeping  in  view  the  low  level  of  literacy  among  minority  women,  their socio-economic  backwardness,  general  lack  of  awareness  about  Government  programmes  and  social deprivation,  Ministry  of  Minority  Affairs  is  implementing  an  exclusive  scheme  'Nai  Roshni' for Leadership Development of Minority Women. The scheme aims to empower and instill confidence in women by providing knowledge, tools and techniques for interacting with Government systems, banks and intermediaries  at  all  levels.  This  includes  economic  empowerment  of  the  trainee  women  so  that they ultimately become independent and confident members of the society . The scheme provides one week training programmes followed by handholding for a period of one year. The training is provided on  various  pre-designed  Training  modules  covering  issues  relating  to  women  viz.  Leadership  of Women through  participation  in  decision  making,  Educational  Programmes  for  women,  Health  and Hygiene, Legal rights of women, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, Swachh Bharat, Life Skills, and Advocacy for Social and Behavioural change.

(c) The number of Non- Governmental Organizations selected and empanelled under the scheme for the purpose of providing training year wise is as below:

|   Sr. No. | Year             | Number of Non- Governmental Organization                                                      |
|-----------|------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | 2012-13          | 100                                                                                           |
|         2 | 2013-14          | 505                                                                                           |
|         3 | 2014-15          | 241                                                                                           |
|         4 | 2015-16          | 134 (empanelled for 2 years)                                                                  |
|         5 | 2016-17          | 88                                                                                            |
|         6 | 2017-18 &2018-19 | 639 Organizations have empanelled for 3 Years (2017-20) to provide training under the scheme. |

- (d)  The funds allocated/utilized by the Ministry during each of the last three years and the current year for providing training under the scheme is as below:
- (e) & (f) The Ministry is implementing Free Coaching and Allied Scheme for minority candidates/students under which free coaching is provided to students belonging to six  notified minority communities through selected coaching institutions/organisations for preparation of qualifying examinations for admission in technical / professional courses and competitive examinations for recruitment  in  Group  'A'  ,  'B'  and  'C'  services  and  other  equivalent  posts  under  the  Central  and  State Governments including public sector undertakings, banks, etc. 30% of the seats are earmarked for eligible girl students. Further, for economic empowerment of minority girls/women, minimum 33% seats have been earmarked  in  all  Skill  Development  Schemes  of  the  Ministry. Maulana  Azad  Education  Foundation (MAEF), an  autonomous  body  under  the  Ministry,  implements  an  exclusive  ' Begum  Hazrat  Mahal Scholarship  Scheme  for  Meritorious  Girls '  for  scholarship  in  class  IX,X,  XI  and  XII  and  ' Gharib Nawaz Skill Development Training' for minorities to provide short term job oriented skill development courses to minorities' youth including minority women in order to enable them for skill based employment. In  addition,  ' National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC)', a  Central  Sector Public Enterprise under the Ministry, implements an exclusive scheme for minority women called ' Mahila Samriddhi Yojana ' for their economic empowerment, and also gives preference to women in its lending schemes, particularly Micro-Finance at concessional interest rates. Under the scheme 'Nai Roshni' there is a provision for those women who are willing and can be further trained under any short duration training for Economic  empowerment  besides  general  handholding  so  that  they  could  get  sustainable  economic livelihood  opportunities  through  suitable  wage  employment  or  self-employment  /  micro-enterprises.  In order to promote education including higher education, Ministry has earmarked minimum 30% seats for minority girls/women in its all educational schemes and about 50% of the total scholarships are availed by the girls.

| Year    |   Funds Allocated (in Rs. Crore) | Funds Utilized (in Rs. Crore)   |
|---------|----------------------------------|---------------------------------|
| 2014-15 |                               14 | 13.78                           |
| 2015-16 |                               15 | 14.81                           |
| 2016-17 |                               15 | 14.68                           |
| 2017-18 |                               15 | 15.26                           |
| 2018-19 |                               15 | 11.72 (Nov,2018)                |

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