National mission for empowerment of women in offing

Women will be able to avail a single window service for all programmes run by the government for them under a new national mission for empowerment of women. Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath today said the mission will help make development programmes easily accessible to women from all sections of society.

"The process to start the mission has begun. The mission will provide a single-window to women to allow them use the government's development services," Tirath told reporters on the sidelines of the Dalit Women's Congress for Peace, Equity and Progress organised by her ministry here.

The mission has been proposed to oversee implementation of women-centric programmes of the participating ministries, state government and Panchayati Raj institutions.

Earlier, speaking at the conference, the minister identified the decline in sex ratio as a matter of great worry, and said the root problems behind the social evil of female foeticide have to be addressed.

"We have to make women aware and self dependent, so that they do not have to abort their girl child under pressure from the family," she said, adding, underprivileged women and those from the scheduled castes and tribes will be given special attention in the government's schemes.

She said she hoped the ministry's recently launched awareness programme, 'daughters against dowry' will yield good results in the long term.