Short stay homes for women to be upgraded

New Delhi, July 11 : Stressing the need on better accommodation facilities for working women, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said here today that the Centre would provide fund to the State Government for the construction of the building and infrastructure for working women's hostels.

She said efforts will be made to set up at least one home in each district with mandatory women helpline, medical care, psychiatric treatment, occupational therapy and education-cum-vocational training facilities.

Addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said that her Ministry had requested the State Governments to allot land for setting up more working women's hostels.

Underlining the importance of counseling services for women under stress and difficult circumstances, she said her Ministry was making efforts to evolve curriculum for counsellors keeping the needs of women and children.

Well-known women and child experts and academicians will be involved in the project, she added.

The counselling center will be set up through NGOs and priority will be given to the pockets where migrated women or women displaced or affected due to natural calamities and disaster are residing.

She also informed that the Central Social Welfare Board of her Ministry runs a programme of condense education, to cater the needs of adult girls and women who could not join mainstream education system or were school dropouts.

Contents of the course were being made more need-based according to local requirements.

Aim of the programme is to instill confidence among women. The scheme is being implemented through voluntary organizations and educational institutions.

Besides this, the government has also increased allocation under the Rajiv Gandhi Creche Scheme for the Children of working mothers.

In the current budget, Rs. 100 crore has been allocated for this purpose, she said.

Members of Parliament stressed on higher allocation for women's rehabilitation schemes and programmes and effective monitoring system to ensure proper utilization of the funds.

They also suggested to run awareness generation programme so that more and more women could avail benefits of the government's schemes.

ANI