Lok Sabha Question No. 648 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-09
Subject: Self Employment of Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 648

TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.12.2022

## SELF EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

648.   SHRI GHANSHYAM SINGH LODHI:

Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has prepared any roadmap to launch scheme related to self employment of women;
- (b) if so, the details thereof with special reference to Rampur, Uttar Pradesh;
- (c) whether there is any specific schemes for the girl child and if so, whether rural or illiterate families are getting benefits of the said schemes;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether any change has been noticed in the outlook of the families towards girl child after the launch of 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' scheme and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI )

- (a)  &  (b)  :   The  Government  has  taken  a  number  of  initiatives   to  encourage  selfemployment of women. Some of the initiatives are as under:
- i. The  Government  of  India  is  providing  training  to  women  through  a  network  of Women Industrial Training Institutes, National Vocational Training Institutes and Regional Vocational Training Institutes under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikash Yojana (PMKVY).
- ii. To economically empower women, 81% of loans of sizes from Rs.10 Lakhs to Rs. 1 crore under 'Stand-Up India' have been made available to women.
- iii. Under 'MUDRA' (or Prime Minister's Micro-Units Development & Refinance Agency) Yojana , 68% loans sized up to Rs. 10 Lakhs have been sanctioned to women-owned and operated enterprises.
- iv. Under National Rural Livelihoods Mission , over 8.5 crore women  are connected  with around 80  lakh  women's  self-help  groups that are  transforming the  rural  socio-economic  landscape  in  several  innovative  and  socially  and

ecologically  responsible  ways,  also  availing  governmental  support  including through collateral free loans.

- v. With  special  attention  towards  entrepreneurship,  under  the Start-up  India Initiative, a large number of loans have been disbursed to women-led enterprises.
- vi. National Agriculture Market or  e-NAM, an online trading platform for agricultural commodities, "Kisan Call Centres" answering farmers' queries on a telephone call in their own dialect, mobile applications like Kisan Suvidha are helping  women  overcome  or  compensate  the  barriers  they  face  in  accessing markets.
- vii. National Cooperative Development Corporation is playing a significant role to uplift women cooperatives as large number of women are engaged and involved in cooperatives dealing with activities related to food grain processing, plantation crops, oilseeds processing, fisheries, dairy & livestock, spinning mills, handloom and power loom weaving, Integrated Cooperative Development Projects, etc.
- viii. Mission  for  Integrated  Development  of  Horticulture imparting  training  for skills  development  to  women,  provide  more  subsidy/assistance  to  women farmers, beneficiaries as compared to general category farmers. Under Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure component, women are eligible for subsidy at  higher  rates  to  procure  agricultural  machinery,  implements  and  equipment under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization.
- ix. To  provide  Government-to-Citizen  (G2C)  e-Services  within  the  reach  of  the citizen, over 5.4 lakh Common Service Centres have been set up, thus creating the physical service delivery ICT infrastructure. These centres are spread across the  country  and  provide  a  range  of  digital  services  in  the  rural  areas,  creating rural digital entrepreneurs of whom over 67,000 are women entrepreneurs.
- x. Pradhan  Mantri  Shram  Yogi  Maan-dhan (PM-SYM)  has  been  launched  to ensure old age protection for unorganised Workers who are not covered by any other  pension  scheme.  The  unorganised  workers  including  women,  mostly engaged as home based workers, street vendors, mid-day meal workers, head loaders, brick kiln workers, cobblers, rag pickers, domestic workers, washer men, rickshaw pullers, landless labourers, agricultural workers, construction workers, beedi  workers,  handloom  workers,  leather  workers,  audio-  visual  workers  and similar other occupations whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less and belong to the entry age group of 18-40 years.

Further,  the  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  has  taken  a  number  of initiatives  to  empower women through the schemes and programmes implemented in the country. The  Ministry implements 'Mission Shakti' , an Integrated  Women Empowerment  Programme,  as  Umbrella Scheme  for the Safety, Security and Empowerment  of  Women  for  implementation  during  the  15th  Finance  Commission period.  It  aims  to  strengthen  interventions  for  safety,  security  and  empowerment  of women in a mission mode through institutional and convergence mechanism for greater efficiency, effectiveness and financial prudence.

The Umbrella Scheme of Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes namely "Sambal" for safety  and  security  of  women  and  "Samarthya"  for  empowerment  of  women.  Under 'Samarthya'  sub-  scheme,  a  new  component  i.e.  Hub  for  Empowerment  of  Women

(HEW)  has  been  included  with  the  aim  to  facilitate  inter-sectoral  convergence  of schemes and programs meant for women at the Central, State/ UT and District levels for creating an environment in which women are able to realize their full potential. The support  under  the  HEW  provides  for  guiding,  linking  and  hand  holding  women  to various  institutional  and  schematic  set  ups  for  their  empowerment  and  development including  access  to  healthcare,  quality  education,  career  and  vocational  counseling/ training,  financial  inclusion,  entrepreneurship,  backward  and  forward  linkages,  health and  safety  for  workers,  social  security  and  digital  literacy  at  districts/  Blocks/  Gram Panchayats level across the country.

(c) & (d) : Some of major schemes of Government for promoting education and holistic development of  girl child are as under:

- i. Beti  Bachao  Beti  Padhao: The  overall  goal  of  the  Beti  Bachao  Beti  Padhao (BBBP)  Scheme  is  to  ensure  survival  and  protection  of  the  girl  child  and  to ensure her education and participation.
- ii. Kasturba  Gandhi  Balika  Vidyalayas focuses  both  on  quality  education  and residential  facilities  for  girl  child(10-18  years)  from  marginalized  communities belonging  to  SC,  ST,  OBC,  Minority  communities  and  BPL  families  to  ensure smooth transition of girls from elementary to secondary and upto class XII.
- iii. Udaan  programme  for  GirlsUdaan  is  a  project  of  the  Central  Board  of Secondary Education (CBSE) to address the low enrollment of girl students in prestigious  engineering  institutions  and  the  teaching  gap  between  the  school education and engineering entrance examination through provision of free online science courses for girls in class XI and XII.
- iv. National Means-cum-Merit SchemeScheme to arrest dropout of girls in school by providing girls belonging to EWS with Rs. 1000/- per month as cash incentive
- v. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is a saving scheme for the parents of girl child. The scheme allows parents to  build  a  fund  for  the  future  education  of  their  female child.Sukanya  Samriddhi  Account provides  a  higher  rate  of  interest  than  other Savings Plans that offer financial security for the girl child.

(e) : Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme has stirred up collective consciousness towards changing the mindset of the public to acknowledge the rights of the girl child. Scheme has raised concerns around the issue of declining CSR in India. This is reflected in the improvement  of  Sex  Ratio  at  Birth (SRB)  by  16  points  at  National  level,  from 918 in 2014-15 to 934 in 2021-22 (Health Management Information System (HMIS), MH&FW). And as per UDISE data of Ministry of Education, the gross enrolment ratio of girls in the schools  at  secondary  level  has  also  increased  from  75.51%  percent  in  (2014-15)  to 79.4% in 2021-22.

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