New Delhi: The Budget 2019 presented on Friday by India’s first full-time woman finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made some significant announcements for women. The Budget brought big focus on women empowerment, proposing to set up a high-level committee to suggest more ways.
In a boost for women Self-Help Groups (SHG), Ms Sitharaman announced the expansion of the interest subvention programme to all districts. She said that every woman SHG member having a verified Jan Dhan account will get an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 and one woman in every SHG will be eligible for a loan up to Rs 1 lakh under the Mudra Scheme.
Mrs Sitharaman allocated Rs 29,000 crore for the Women and Child Development Ministry which is a 17 per cent increase over the 2018-2019 financial year with Centre’s programmes of maternity benefit and child protection services getting major boost. The total allocation for the centrally sponsored schemes was Rs 28,914 crore, a hike of Rs 4,400 crore from the last fiscal.
The amount allocated for the social services sector, which includes nutrition and social security and welfare, was enhanced from Rs 2,551 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 4,178 crore in the fiscal 2019-20. The allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), a maternity benefit programme, was more than doubled to Rs 2,500 crore from Rs 1,200 crore. The allocation for the Child Protection Services programme under the Integrated Child Development Services was increased to Rs 1,500 crore from Rs 925 crore while “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” programme will get Rs 280 crore. The total budget under the Mission for Protection and Empowerment of Women was increased from Rs 1,148 crore to Rs 1,315 crore.
