The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Several welfare schemes for women announced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 25, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Several welfare schemes for women announced

Staff Reporter

Short stay homes have been proposed for women in distress

BANGALORE: With women at the helm of affairs in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the budget for 2006-2007 has proposed several welfare schemes for them.

While the 34 wards represented by women have been given special development grants of Rs. 7.8 crores, the budget proposes to set up short stay homes for women in distress and widows.

Courses

To start with, a short stay home will be set up in Shivajinagar, represented by Mayor Mumtaz Begum. A sum of Rs. 45 lakhs has been set aside for this.

Apart from training women in beauty care, the BMP will also conduct courses in manufacturing household products, repairing mobile phones and accounting software. A sum of Rs. 75 lakhs has been set aside in the budget for this.

Quota for women

This apart, the civic body will ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in all other courses conducted by the Social Welfare Department. Women will be also be trained in driving and given Maruti vans (three unemployed youth in each ward are already getting the vans).

Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance Lalitha Srinivas Gowda, who presented the budget on Friday, said the services of these women drivers could be used to ferry women call centre employees. The BMP has set aside Rs. 5 crores for this.

The existing tailoring course will continue and the teachers' salaries have been raised by Rs. 500 per month.

Allocation for incentives such as stipend and tailoring machines to trainees has also been increased.

Workshops

For the first time, the BMP has set aside Rs. 5 lakhs for conducting workshops and discussions on women empowerment on the occasion of International Women's Day.

`Sanjeevini,' a supplementary nutrition programme for expecting and nursing mothers from the urban poor families will be extended to all wards and Rs. 30 lakhs has been set aside for this.

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