Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra Yojana

2927. SHRI BHAGIRATH CHOUDHARY:

Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state:

a. the time when the Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra Yojana was launched for the economic empowerment of women on basis of cost sharing along with the process of selection in this regard;

b. whether any criteria has been fixed for the beneficiaries of the scheme, if so, the details thereof;

c. the number of eligible women benefited under the scheme from the date of launch till December, 2022, year-wise and State-wise including district-wise in Rajasthan;

d. whether proposals have been sent for setting up centers under the scheme in various districts of the States including Rajasthan, if so, the present status thereof; and

e. the details of the amount released under the scheme in all the districts of Rajasthan?

(a) to (e): The Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) Scheme was approved in November, 2017 as a centrally sponsored scheme to empower rural women through community participation. Under the MSK scheme, a sum of Rs. 4.03 crore was released to the State of Rajasthan since its inception.

A third party evaluation study of MSK scheme was conducted by NITI Aayog in 2020. Taking into account the findings of the evaluation and in consultation with States/ UTs and stakeholders, the scheme has been discontinued with effect from 01.04.2022, while suitably incorporating appropriate provisions under other components of ”Mission Shakti”, an umbrella scheme for safety, security and empowerment of women launched by the Government with effect from 01.04.2022 for implementation during the Fifteenth Finance Commission period.

The umbrella scheme ‘Mission Shakti’ has two sub-schemes namely ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’ for greater efficiency, effectiveness and financial prudence. Benefiting from the learning from implementation of earlier scheme, a new component has been incorporated under ‘Samarthya’ sub- scheme i.e. Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW), at National, State and District levels. HEW aims to facilitate inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women at the Central (NHEW), State/ UT (SHEW) and District (DHEW) levels with the mandate to create an environment in which women realize their full potential. The support under HEW provides for information dissemination, guiding, linking and hand holding women to various institutional and schematic set ups for their empowerment and development including access to healthcare, quality education, career and vocational counseling/ training, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, backward and forward linkages, health and safety for workers, social security and digital literacy etc. across the country including the State of Rajasthan. Under the Scheme, cost sharing between Centre and States is 60:40, except in respect of North Eastern and Special Category States, where the cost sharing ratio is 90:10 and for UTs without Legislature, it is 100% central funding.

The Ministry has approved setting up SHEW at State level and DHEW for each of the districts of Rajasthan and a sum of Rs.2.66 crore as Central Share has already been released to the State for the purpose.

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