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- Women in India were regarded respectable status in society in ancient period especially Vedic period. But gradually due to degradation of value system, consumerist thinking, urbanization and other such reasons, the women were viewed as slaves in the male dominated society. Women’s condition even now can not be said satisfactory despite the govt.’s efforts, availability of no. of women empowerment programs, legislations, etc. The main hurdles in women’s development have been lack of proper skill development training, lack of entrepreneurship development programs, lack of community based skill development support etc.
- It has been realized that govt. efforts in empowerment of women belonging to economically backward sections need to be supplemented through women’s own groups like self-help groups so that a holistic development strategy could be implemented for the betterment of living conditions of women in addition to their economic activities. It has been estimated that all over India, some 18,87,584 self-help groups have been formed. The self-help groups actually functions as a forum for socio-economic transformation of the neglected and deprived women folks. In order to improve the livelihood security and quality of life of poor citizens living in the slums of Delhi it is proposed to set up Urban Knowledge Centers in each slum of Delhi. These Urban Knowledge Centers (UKCs) would be operated by NGOs who would also be responsible for mobilizing the community to avail of the services provided through these centers and independent performance monitoring and evaluation system would be set up to assess the efficacy of implementation of the UKCs. These UKCs would be expected to become self-sustaining in a year’s time.
There are about 1100 notified slums in Delhi while there are another 1700 un-notified slums. It is estimated that about one third of Delhi’s population, approximately 50 lacs, lives in un-authorized colonies and JJ Clusters which constitute the slums of Delhi. About half of the women living in the slums are estimated to be illiterate.
The drop out rate among girls attending Government schools in Delhi is quite high with an informal estimate of drop out rates between class V and class XII put at 66% while only about 15% of the girls who pass class XII make it to college. The remaining girls drop out of the formal education system and are mostly confined to homes without entering the formal work stream. Because of various social factors many of these girls do not venture out of their neighborhood even though experience with various programmes indicates that these girls are interested in perusing further education. Also there is a considerable degree of unemployment among married women living in slums. Even though some employment opportunities are available to these girls and women who are out of the formal system of employment, the employment opportunities are not regular and are not available all the time causing considerable fluctuations in their income levels. These fluctuations in income levels may not be in synchrony with their monetary requirements. On the other hand the quality of public amenities available to persons living in the slums is abysmally poor leading to a considerably lower quality of life.
- In Delhi state, govt. has launched a no. of development schemes focusing on women empowerment and self reliance such as Gender Resource Centres, Stree Shakti Camps, ICDS etc.. But there is still a wide gap between need and resources. The women need to be trained in entrepreneurship skills and community based economic activities.
- In Delhi some 3500 women’s groups have been formed as a result of initiatives taken under various schemes such as SwayamSiddha, GRC, ICDS etc. Some NGOs have also encouraged women beneficiaries under various grants-in aid projects to form groups and Mahila Mandals. But the efforts of such groups need to be supported and encouraged as they lack resources and requisite expertise in skill development inputs.
- The proposed scheme envisages launching of a social action strategy to set up community based skill training and entrepreneurship development centers which will be managed by women self-help groups, NGOs, RWAs etc. These centre will provide multi skill training in various trades/crafts to the women beneficiaries like computer assisted textile designing, computer literacy, computer designed woolen, garment making etc. The state govt. will assist such groups with procurement of computers, stationary, and one time contingency grants around Rs. 10,000/- lump sum per center.
- The scheme is scheduled to be implemented in three phases spread over 3 years with a target of assisting 3300 such groups. Thus each year, 1100 such groups will be assisted with contingency grants and 5 computer hardware.
- The recurring expenses will be borne by the groups and the govt. role will to provide 5 computers to each such group having women beneficiaries from 20-100. The computer training schedule will be in batches of 10-15 beneficiaries in different shifts. The group / NGO will pay fro the instructor’s remuneration through contributions. However, one time contingency grant of Rs. 10,000/- will be given to each group through cheque in the bank account of such group.
- The objective of the scheme includes- creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential; equal access to participation and decision making of women in social and economic life of the nation ; mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process ;building and strengthening partnership with civil society particularly women’s organizations; to undertake activities of self-reliance and economic rehabilitation by way of optimizing use/benefits of women self-help groups, NGOs and other support agencies; to upgrade vocational skills and engage into gainful employment as to supplement their income etc.
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