Journalism of Courage
To ensure that girls in the city are not only empowered but also trained in how to defend themselves,civic planners are now going to initiate self defence skills at schools run by the Pune Municipal Corporation. A gender sensitive budget rolled out this year allocating Rs 20 crore includes a slew of schemes that aim to impact the lives of women and girls.
The civic bodys attempt to empower women is apt with this year’s International Womens Day theme: ‘A promise is a promise time for action to end violence against women. Efforts are under way to set up 15 counselling centres at ward offices. Last year,as many as 100 cases were referred from five counselling centres to the family court, H S Nazirkar,Project Director,Urban Community Development,PMC told Newsline.
Problems were manifold either the woman was harassed at her home by the husband who was alcoholic or there were disputes between neighbours. Our counselling centres would also have lawyers to help resolve the disputes or refer them to family court, Nazirkar said. He said focus had been on teaching self-defence techniques to adolescent girls in schools,adding that master trainers were being trained to conduct courses.
A variety of schemes have been given launched to encourage women to undergo vocational training. A total of Rs 1.2 crore was spent last year on 1,200 widows whose family income was less than Rs 1 lakh per annum. In the last three years,we urged widows to avail of a one-time grant of Rs 10,000 and enroll in vocational courses to support their familys income, Nazirkar said.
At six vocational guidance centres,training in 36 different types of course is conducted. He said more than 3,000 women availed of the benefit.
The declining child sex ratio in Pune has led the authorities to now institute a scheme where a corpus of Rs 5 crore will be set aside for the girl child.
Once a girl is born in a particular locality,people will be encouraged to contribute Rs 10,000 that will be supplemented by the PMC that will give Rs 20,000. The amount will be then given to the family, Nazirkar said,adding that details of the scheme was being worked out and would be implemented soon.
On the occasion of International Womens Day (March 8),PMC will felicitate residential community volunteers who have helped provide a wide range of information related to womens laws and welfare among 5,300 below poverty line neighbourhood groups. There are as many as 12,000 mahila bachat gat (womens saving groups) that have been encouraged by the civic body.
