These centres will be functional from June 2006 and DCOs of the respective areas have been directed to locate land for their establishment. The source said that during the previous three years the ministry was allocated Rs 2,352.5 million, out of this amount it has utilized Rs 1,711.5 million.
It was learnt that during the previous financial year the Ministry for Women Development had undertaken 66 projects that had cost Rs 925 million but due to capacity constraints the ministry was unable to carry out monitoring and evaluation.
According to the Labour Force Survey, women are 16.9 percent of the total employed labour force, 11.4 percent are working in the agriculture sector and 5.5 percent are involved in non-agricultural activities and their employment rate is 12.75 percent.
Source said that the government has provided an amount of 3 million dollars for the capacity building of women councillors. Under this project, training is being imparted to female councillors focusing on gender sensitivity and awareness raising , legislative agenda setting , allocation and utilisation of budgetary resources, skill building, constituency servicing.
He said that IT policy emphasised the strategy to facilitate and encourage the training and hiring of women in IT sector to help reduce the unemployment and to utilise this largely untapped human resources.
The source said that development of Gender Management Information System (GMIS) is under way, which on completion will facilitate the Ministry of Women Development.
Women development departments have been set up to plan strategic interventions based on the gaps identified in gender-disaggregated data generated through the GIMS, he added.
He said that at present, the ownership of land in the country is skewed. In rural context reforms should provide ownership and control of land to women and men from all caste, classes and religion.
The reform is essential to diffuse landed power that impacts livelihood opportunities, rule of law and electoral processes, he added.