Lok Sabha Question No. 1560 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-28
Subject: Scheme for Self Employment of Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Navneet Ravi Rana, Sunil Kumar Pintu, Locket Chatterjee

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1560

TO BE ANSWERED ON 28.07.2023

## SCHEME FOR SELF EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

†1560.  SHRIMATI NAVNEET RAVI RANA: SHRI SUNIL KUMAR PINTU: MS. LOCKET CHATTERJEE:

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

- (a) whether the Government has prepared any roadmap for launching any scheme related to self - employment of women;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  with  respect  to  different  States,  State/  UT-wise including Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal;
- (c) whether there is any special scheme for girl child;
- (d) if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the rural and illiterate families are availing benefits of the said schemes and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether any change has been noticed in the outlook of the families towards the 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 , approximately 9.0 crore women are connected with around 83 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 and extension services.
- 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 5.2 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' 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.

(c) to (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. 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.
6. (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 15 points at National level, from 918 in  2014-15  to  933  in  2022-23  (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.