Mulugu Selected Under Centre’s ‘Inclusive Cities for Women and Girls’ Initiative

Warangal: Mulugu district has been selected under the Centre’s ‘Inclusive Cities for Women and Girls’ initiative funded through the Nirbhaya Fund, aimed at creating safer and gender-responsive urban and semi-urban spaces.

Telangana panchayat raj minister Seethakka met Union minister for women and child development Annapurna Devi in New Delhi on Saturday and thanked the Centre for including Mulugu in the programme.

The initiative seeks to improve women’s safety through gender-sensitive infrastructure such as advanced surveillance systems, strengthened emergency response mechanisms and better mobility facilities for women and girls.

Seethakka said the state women and child welfare department would coordinate with the district administration to prepare a detailed project report for implementing the scheme in Mulugu.

She said the Telangana government remained committed to strengthening safety mechanisms for women in both rural and urban areas and added that the project would help enhance security and dignity for women and girls in the district.

During the meeting, the minister also raised the issue of low honorarium for frontline childcare workers under the ‘Palna’ scheme of Mission Shakti.

She submitted a request to the Union minister seeking an increase in wages for Anganwadi workers and helpers, noting that the current honorarium stands at Rs 5,500 per month for workers and Rs 3,000 for helpers.

Seethakka said Anganwadi staff manage the welfare of about 25 children at each centre and argued that low pay made it difficult to retain experienced workers, which could affect childcare services for working mothers.

She urged the Centre to revise the honorarium in line with present living costs, stating that fair compensation was necessary to support those engaged in women’s empowerment and child welfare programmes.