Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday stressed the need for effective coordination between elected representatives, general public, non government organizations and Government to ensure maximum relevance of Mission Convergence that was started in August 2008 to increase the reach of 47 different welfare schemes among people in Delhi.
Speaking at the concluding session of the three-day Bhagidari Workshop on Mission Convergence at Delhi Secretariat, Ms. Dikshit said that from now on District Development Committees would also contribute in streamlining the functioning of Mission Convergence. She said the main objective of the workshop was to ascertain the shortcomings and discrepancies in Mission Convergence and to find feasible solutions to make it more effective and helpful.
Noting that the scheme has tried to provide a helping hand to a large number of vulnerable sections of the society, to improve the service delivery of social welfare programs and to prepare a single list of beneficiaries of all department as every department had separate lists earlier, the Chief Minister said Delhi has been able to reach the un-reached and has widened its definition of beneficiaries beyond the criteria of below poverty line with Mission Convergence.
Ms. Dikshit said now the residents of jhuggi-jhopris, rickshaw-pullers, rag-pickers, street vendors, construction workers and other such persons get the benefit of welfare schemes even without having any income certificate which used to be one of the criteria earlier.
Stating that Mission Convergence would be made more simple, easy and appropriate, she said to promote this single window mechanism already five Cabinet decisions have been implemented and a number of notifications have been issued.
The Chief Minister also informed Ladli Scheme has become a great success and the sex ratio in Delhi has increase from 867 girls to 1004 girls against 1000 boys. With the help of NGOs, she said, two surveys have also been conducted covering 42 lakh people. Besides, 94 Suvidha Kendra have been established, 16,000 women have benefited from medical camps, a single comprehensive data base on vulnerable people has been prepared and 47 welfare scheme have been rationalized into about half a dozen schemes.
As for the other social measures, Ms Dikshit said Delhi Government has also started pension for destitute women. It is a step that has probably been taken first time in the country, she said.
She expressed confidence that Mission Convergence would go a long way in ensuring benefits to those persons which have remained un-covered till now. She assured that suggestions received from the participants at the meet would be implemented and announced that Delhi Government would develop a portal in Hindi for Mission Convergence.
