Single women to get govt aid to set up businesses UTTARAKHAND SCHEME

Govt to give 90% of funds for starting self-employment projects to help women become self-reliant

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand government has started a self-employment scheme for single women, providing 90% of investments required to set up businesses.

“Under the subsidy-based scheme to make single women atmanirbhar (self-reliant), we will help start projects with 90% financial support by the state and 10% contribution by them. Self-employment will be provided in the fields of animal husbandry, fisheries, tailoring, fashion design, making spices and honey, among other things,” said Rekha Arya, minister for women and child development.

Single women include widows, divorced and those abandoned by families.

According to government data, Uttarakhand has a total number of 418,285 single women, constituting 8.45% of the total female population. Widows number the highest, 92.57% of the total population of single women.

Arya instructed officials to ensure publicity to the scheme, which will “help single women not just become self-reliant, but also owners of their projects.”

The minister told officials to chalk out an action plan to give the Tillu Rauteli Award next month to women who have made special contribution in the state’s fight against Covid-19.

It was decided during a review meeting that one unit each for making eco-friendly

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Self-employment will be provided in the fields of animal husbandry, fisheries, tailoring, fashion design, and making spices and honey, among others. REKHA ARYA, Minister for women and child development

bags will be set up in Almora and Dehradun districts under the self-employment scheme.

Arya took stock of other projects, such as the nutrition campaign among women and children and construction of hostels for working women, and asked officials to speed up the work.

“Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) should be given benefits at the earliest. The process of making Aadhaar cards should be expedited for those beneficiaries who do not have cards, so that they can also be included in the scheme,” said Arya.

PMMVY is a Centre-sponsored maternity benefit programme run by the ministry of women and child development. It is a cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth. It provides compensation to women for wage loss during childbirth and childcare.

In December last year, the Uttarakhand Women Commission along with ActionAid NGO in a study had covered aspects of the struggle faced by single women, including livelihood, ownership of land and other assets, decision making, access to government schemes and entitlements, participation in village-level committees and panchayats, among others.

Manisha Bhatia, programme officer with ActionAid who conducted the survey, said most of the single women in the hills do agriculture and only widows had lands on their own name.

“Despite working on the land on their own, the women did now own lands, neither do they have the decision making power to even sell the minutest of the things in the market. In case there are no elders at the home, then the women consult with their sons or a younger male member before taking any decision,” said Bhatia.

In the plain areas of Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Haridwar, researchers found that women prefer taking up professions where they do not have to go out at odd hours, or the work can be done from home.