In a move that will benefit around 4.93 lakh women in the city, the civic body has decided to increase the annual income limit of women, who want to benefit from its welfare schemes, from Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
According to civic officials, more than six lakh families in the city will be benefited by the BMC’s move. At present, there are 4.93 lakh women in Mumbai, who earn less than Rs 60,000 annually.
Mayor Sunil Prabhu said, “The current living standards and growing inflation has made the lives of poor people, especially women, more difficult. To make them financially stronger, there was an urgent need to change the rules for people to benefit from the women and child welfare schemes. Hence, we demanded that the annual income limit for such families be increased to Rs 1 lakh.”
Civic chief Sitaram Kunte has given an in-principle nod for this hike. The gender budget concept was initiated by former mayor Shubha Raul in 2009. Under the gender budget, the BMC had made a financial provision of Rs 15.95 crore for the implementation of women and child welfare schemes. These schemes include basic training for skill development, self-protection and capacity building to help poor and needy urban women for self-employment. These schemes can also be availed by women, whose families are below poverty line (BPL).
“Training is provided in various courses including beautician, stitching, cooking, making of incense sticks, phenyl and detergents, artificial jewellery, paper conservation, screen printing, basic computer, computer hardware and DTP, fibre moulding, making of fancy bags, making of masala, jams, sherbats, food processing and fashion designing. They are also provided seven types of machines like flourmills and sewing machines free of cost to earn their livelihood,” said a senior civic official.