Budget cut to WCD restored through supplementary grants:Maneka

The budget cut of more than 50 per cent faced by Women and Child Development Ministry in March last year has been restored through supplementary grants, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said today.
"The budget has been restored. In fact we are giving a lot more money to institutions and, for the first time, a massive exercise to check on each institution has started," the Women and Child Development Minister said during a live chat with Facebook users.
The ministry was allocated Rs 10,382 crore for 2015-16 as against last financial year's allocation of Rs 21,193 crore.
The budget for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which was worst hit programme of the Ministry after the funds were slashed, has also been increased.

"There is no deficiency of budget under the ICDS scheme. From the initial allocation of Rs 8,335.77 crore for ICDS, the funds have been increased to Rs 15,485.77 crore through supplementary grants," a senior ministry official said.
During the two-hour live interaction on the social networking website, Gandhi replied to questions on a range of topics concerning women empowerment and child welfare.

She said the Ministry was working on devising a training programme for women pradhans in villages.
"This is the first programme of its kind. I have always felt that the Panchayati Raj empowered women to the extent of making 2 lakh of them pradhans of villages. NCW (National Commission for Women) has been asked to train these 2 lakh pradhans in several things; how to administer, access money, look after the building of infrastructure etc," she said.

Referring to various state-run schemes for women empowerment, the minister said government was working on an initiative for marketing of products made by women.
"Under Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, we give money to women to start enterprises at 6 per cent. I have a programme called STEP to train 200 women at a time on how to earn money. I am also starting something called 'Women of India' in which we will help market any product made by any woman anywhere in India, in collaboration with ebay," she said.
Replying to a question on misuse of Dowry Prohibition Act by women, Gandhi said very few women do so and that the Act was the only protection for women at large.

"While it is true that a minuscule number of women are misusing this law, it is the only protection that women have and it would be a shame to make every woman defenseless. Every law is misused. That's why we have courts and judges," the minister said.