BHOPAL: Aiming to make Madhya Pradesh safe for girls and women, the Kamal Nath government cleared on Thursday, the decks for implementing Safe City Programme in six cities.
The six cities which have been selected to be covered under this program, include state capital Bhopal, economic capital Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and Chhatarpur.
The central government-sponsored scheme will be run through the Nirbhaya Fund from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
A budget of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for the program, which will be run by the Women and Child Development (WCD) department.
Efforts will be made, in collaboration with other departments, to make cities fully safe for women.
According to MP public relations minister PC Sharma, the scheme among other aspects will focus on training women and girls in self-defense skills in the selected skills. The main objective of the programme is to provide a safe environment for girls and women in cities so that they could lead their life free of the fear of any kind of violence, added Sharma.
The scheme whose start in the six cities was cleared by the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday assumes significance as the central Indian state has over last few years attained the dubious distinction of being among most unsafe states for women and girls -- as per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) Crime in India data.
Also, the cabinet decided to start the Rajya Prarambhik Gramin Udhmita programme in 6 tribal blocks of the State as a pilot project for high-level minor entrepreneurship development of the Self Help Groups formed under the State Rural Livelihood Mission.
The six blocks include Udaigarh and Jobat in District Alirajpur, Dhari and Kukshi in District Dhar and Jhabua and Ranapur in District Jhabua.