Finance Minister had announced the Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) scheme during the budget speech of 2017-18. The scheme primarily aims at providing services for the benefit of women that deals with skill development, employment, digital literacy, health, and nutrition.
The Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shashaktikaran Yojana (PMMSY) Scheme has approved Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) for implementation from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The Scheme will serve as an interface for rural women to contact the government in order to get their entitlements. And to get empowered through education, training, and capacity building. Student volunteers will promote gender equality and the spirit of volunteerism in the community. These student volunteers will operate as "change agents" in their neighbourhoods and across the country.

OBJECTIVES / AIMS

The scheme is framed to create an environment for the women living in a rural community in which they realize their full potential. The government plans to provide immense support and strength to the women so that they can establish smaller business units. Also, the scheme is intended to create awareness of the roles to be played by these women and about the schemes and programs launched by the government.

FEATURES OF MAHILA SHAKTI KENDRA SCHEME

• The scheme primarily aims at providing services for the benefit of women that deals with skill development, employment, digital literacy, health, and nutrition.
• It is aimed at protecting children by means of education and to ensure the declining child sex ratio.
• It provides an interlink between the rural women and the government so that they could practice their rights and know their duties.
• The government intends to take into account the 115 most backward districts in the country and plans to establish 920 "Mahila Shakthi Kendra's."
• In order for smooth functioning at all levels, a Taskforce has been established for planning and administrating this scheme.
• The scheme is an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, under Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani.
• The scheme is said to be operational until the year 2020.
• All the other schemes under the mission to protect women aim at empowering the status of women in society. By taking care of her education and declining the child sex ratio.

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF MSK

The scheme is anticipated to work at various levels such as the National, State and District level.

NATIONAL-LEVEL
At the National level, it would deal with (domain-based knowledge support) so that it can promote the goals through the convergence of administrations of the states and UTs across the country. The scheme would also focus on capacity build-up and training to enhance gender issue understanding.

STATE-LEVEL
At the State level structures will provide them with technical support to the respective government on issues related to women. There would be a continuous evaluation of review ongoing policies, programmes and legislative activities for better accessibility by the women in need by the SRCW.

DISTRICT-LEVEL
The District level Centres will provide support to MSK and also give firm help to the people living BBBP in 640 districts to be covered in a manner. The District shall also provide support to PMMSK and also give a foothold to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), Sakhi – One Stop Centres, Mahila Police Volunteers, Swadhar, Ujjawala, women helpline, and various other schemes for the betterment and encouragement of the women in society.

BLOCK-LEVEL
The most important initiatives will be at the block level wherein community engagement through student volunteers is planned in more than 100 backward districts where PMMSKs will be set up. The Student volunteers will take into consideration the awareness about government schemes/ programs. Training and capacity building for the empowerment of rural women through block-level intervention. In addition, They would assist the government in providing awareness about the various schemes. It is designed for the betterment of women and their status in society. And it would also educate them as to how can they approach the government to avail their entitlements.

ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS SCHEME

• Prepare Action Plans based on women related issues related to Social Welfare/Women & Child Development.
• Identify existing or potential problems in achieving convergence of government programmes, schemes and services.
• Coordination with different departments/agencies/missions in the state to identify factors in the design, process and delivery of schemes/legislations.
• Facilitate and monitor implementation of MSK- Block Level activities.
• Liaison with the existing institutions and structures for monitoring and reviewing government schemes with a gender perspective.
• Develop partnership models with PRIs, CSOs & Private Sector for initiating activities that promote women's empowerment.
• Identify best practices (Government, Civil Society Organisations, PRI) in various sectoral areas like health, education, microfinance, livelihoods, etc. from a gender perspective, document initiatives and disseminate within the state.
• Send regular reports on the status of implementation of various women-centric schemes and programmes (including DLCW and MSK) in the state.
• Contribute to the national repository of information on best practices in the realm of women empowerment.

RATIO OF FUNDING RESOURCES

The Central and State Governments will share the funding in a ratio of 60:40 respectively. The Central Government's contribution will be the foremost. However, the Union Territories will be entirely funded by the Central Government.

State Governments has been requested on different occasions to release the State for a share of funds. In a written reply by The Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, it was written that as per Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme, District Level Centres for women are approved for all districts as per Census of India, 2011. In total, The funding is planned as per approved scheme guidelines.

For the fulfilment of the objective of convergence of action and cost efficiency, a common task force has been planned to be created at the district. State and national levels for systematic planning, monitoring and reviewing all the other schemes associated with MSK.

CHALLENGES FACED BY THE GOVERNMENT

The challenges that the government came across while implementing the scheme were –

• Non-availability of college faculty members/colleges in certain Blocks and difficulties in engaging student volunteers.
• Proper technological assistance for the arrangement of Video conferences/meetings/visits in order to create general awareness.
• Proper planning of funds so that a sufficient amount of money is left over with the government in order to implement other schemes.

Read More: Central Government Schemes: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Baby girl are pride, Education is their right

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