Cabinet gives go ahead to implement Mata Tripta Mahila Yojna aimed at empowering women headed households

Chandigarh: In a bid to empower the Women-headed households in the State, the Cabinet on Wednesday gave go ahead to implement Mata Tripta Mahila Yojna.

Pertinently, Punjab has 54,86,851 households, (Census 2011) out of which 7,96,030 households are headed by women. The objective of this new policy is to empower Women headed Households (WHH) in Punjab, who is an adult female and the sole or main income earner and decision-maker. It is estimated that an additional allocation of Rs.177.1 crore per annum including Rs.5 crore for IEC activities would be required from the year 2021-22 for new interventions and also for dissemination and outreach programmes to cover all the eligible beneficiaries.

Under this scheme, the head of the household must be a widow/deserted woman/separated woman/divorced woman/unmarried woman and she must be the sole earning member in the family.

According to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office, the unique initiative of the State Government shall focus on providing the benefits of existing/ongoing government schemes being run by various departments. The underlying objective of this pro-women initiative is to reach out to all the needy women-headed households in the state, so as to provide services/benefits and ensure their rights with regard to healthcare, education, employment, safety and dignity in all spheres of life.

Pointing out further, the spokesperson said that the scheme would also undertake new initiatives and programmes in order to cover those aspects and needs which have so far not been covered adequately under any existing Centrally/State sponsored scheme or women/girl child oriented scheme.

Women's empowerment refers to the action of raising the status of women through awareness, education, training and equal opportunity everywhere, Women's empowerment is thus about equipping women to make life determining decisions for themselves. As per Census 2011, women constitute 47.23% of total population of the State as compared to 48.5% at the national level. The total population of Punjab is 2.7 crore, out of which, males number 1.4 crores and females number 1.3 crore, spokesperson added.

Notably, the Punjab Government is committed to the empowerment of women in the State. It has already taken many initiatives for women, through special schemes and policies. The reservation for women in the Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies has been increased to 50 per cent. Likewise, the reservation of women in government jobs has been raised to 33 percent.