BHUBANESWAR: As State government has been giving special emphasis on empowerment of women and children, the allocation for the sector has gone up by 42 per cent (pc) over the provision of last fiscal. According to the budget estimates, an outlay of Rs 5,566.62 crore has been proposed for both Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti departments for 2022-23 financial year.
The estimate was Rs 3,906 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 4,074.64 crore in 2020-21 for undertaking various women and child centric programmes and welfare measures. The government has allocated Rs 2,000 crore for the newly created Mission Shakti department and the rest Rs 3,566.62 crore for Women and Child Development department this time.
The provisions for Mission Shakti department included Rs 1,039 crore under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Rs 773 crore for financial assistance to women self help groups (WSHGs) and their federations and Rs 176 crore for construction of building for WSHGs.The government has proposed to provide Rs 247 crore under Mamata scheme and Rs 43 crore under Biju Sishu Surakshya Yojana - Ashirbad besides Rs 78 crore towards uniforms of children undergoing pre-school education under Malatidevi Prak-Vidyalaya Paridhan Yojana.
The highest provision of Rs 2,397 crore has been made for Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, which is being implemented with the objective of improving nutritional and health status of children below the age of six years as well as pregnant and lactating mothers. Besides, Rs 416 crore has been provided as additional State support for implementation of ICDS.