Women empowerment mission to begin work soon
By IANSTuesday, July 6, 2010
NEW DELHI - The central directorate of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women will soon be operational, officials Monday said.
“The directorate will have four posts with a director of additional secretary level. The names will be forwarded to the cabinet for approval next week,” a women and child development ministry official said, adding that the states had also been told to set up their resource centres soon.
An amount of Rs.35 lakh per year has been sanctioned for state centres, the official said.
The mission launched by President Pratibha Patil March 8 - International Women’s Day - this year aims at a comprehensive approach towards the issues related to women and overseeing their empowerment in all spheres. It will be headed by the prime minister at the national level and by the chief ministers in states.
“If a woman is empowered, she will be in a better position to handle the evils and exploitation she is exposed to. We will focus on education, skill training, and finance for women entrepreneurs among other things,” Women and Child Development Secretary D.K. Sikri told IANS.
“We have been treating symptoms like domestic violence, dowry tortures and other similar cases, but the mission aims at treating the root cause, the socio-economic empowerment of women,” he said.
–Indo Asian News Service
