The Government has sanctioned 12 more District-level Centres for Women in the State under the Centrally sponsored Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme to empower rural women through community participation and help them realise their full potential.
An amount of ₹10.5 lakh has been sanctioned for each of the 12 district-level centres.
Block-level centres
It had in February this year sanctioned one district-level centre in Thrissur district and four block-level centres each in Thrissur and Wayanad districts.
With the sanctioning of the new centres, officials of the Women and Child Development Department hope the scheme can be rolled out without further delay.
The Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme aims at enabling women to avail entitlements from the government and facilitating their training and capacity building.
The one-stop centres are meant to provide opportunities to women in skill development, employment, health, and nutrition.
Services
Awareness programmes, empowerment through facilitating their participation in grama sabhas, helping women access government services, and removing bottlenecks, if any, are some of the services that the district-level centres will provide.
A district-level task force headed by the Collector will coordinate, monitor and review the project implementation.
The district-level centres will be set up at the Collectorates or District Women and Child office.
In Thrissur district, procedures for appointment of staff for the district-level centres are on.
One woman welfare officer and two district coordinators will be appointed. After appointment, their training too will be held.
Kudumbashree
Block-level centres will come up at Anthikkad, Chalakudy, Mala, and Chavakkad.
Child development project officers of the block concerned will be the nodal officers at the block level. Four college faculty members will be included in the block-level committees. Kudumbashree members too will be nominated to these committees.
Anganwadi centres, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) offices, or panchayat offices will host the anganwadi centres.
Community engagement will happen through student volunteers.
Trained college or Plus One or Plus Two students, preferably girls, will help create awareness of government schemes and social issues, thereby bringing change in their community. The volunteers will be paid an honorarium of Rs.400 for six days of work and presented with certificates.
The Thrissur centre is expected to start functioning soon.
