Lok Sabha Question No. 1433 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-10
Subject: Scheme for Self Employment of Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Ajay Kumar Mandal, Sunil Kumar Pintu, Nihal Chand Chauhan, Navneet Ravi Rana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1433

TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.02.2023

## SCHEME FOR SELF EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

†1433. SHRI AJAY KUMAR MANDAL:

SHRI SUNIL KUMAR PINTU:

SHRI NIHAL CHAND:

SHRIMATI NAVNEET RAVI RANA:

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

- (a) whether the Government has prepared any roadmap to introduce a scheme for self-employment of women;
- (b) if so, the details thereof particularly in respect of Bihar and Maharashtra;
- (c) the comprehensive steps taken by the Government for the empowerment of women during the last two years;
- (d) whether there is any special scheme for girls, if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the rural or illiterate families have benefitted from the said schemes and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether any change in mindset of the families has been noticed towards the girl child since 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) to (c):  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 Vikas 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 womenled 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.  During  the  15th  Finance  Commission period,  the  Ministry  implements 'Mission  Shakti' ,  an  Integrated  Women  Empowerment  Programme,  as  Umbrella Scheme for the Safety, Security and Empowerment of Women. 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' subscheme, a new component i.e. Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW) has been included with the aim to facilitate intersectoral  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.

(d) & (e): 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. 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.
5. (f): 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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