Punjab Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Aruna Chaudhary on Friday asked the district programme officers to effectively implement women and children centric schemes while directing the officers to ensure zero laxity in the safety of both women and children.
Chaudhary, presiding over a meeting with the Department’s senior officers in which all the District Programme Officers of the State were also present to reviewe various schemes for the welfare of children and women, issued directions for the effective functioning of ‘one stop centres’, set up for the victims of exploitation and crimes, besides setting up working women hostels in big cities.
In the marathon meeting, Chaudhary minutely reviewed every scheme and decided to conduct a similar meeting every two months with the District Programme Officers while the senior officers would conduct such meetings every month.
She also directed all the District Programme Officers to frame a comprehensive plan for procuring funds under the Nirbhaya Scheme and send the same to the Union Government.
Instructions were also issued to the officers to initiate out-of-the-box steps to implement at the grassroots level ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme, while also supporting the training of girls in self defence techniques.
Talking about ‘one stop centres’, Chaudhary said that as of now five such centres are under construction in five districts which explains why they are being run in the hospitals as interim arrangements.
“The identity of the victim of any crime must be kept a secret and requisite legal and medical assistance should be rendered,” she said.
Similarly, the Minister also took stock of the ‘Working Women Hostel’ scheme for the women working in the big cities. The land has been identified for such hostels in Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana, whereas in Mohali, the land identification is yet to done.
The Minister also gave instructions for the speedy implementation of the project and also exhorted the officials to cover other big cities under the scheme while terming it as “yet another big step in the direction of women safety”.
Reviewing the lack of infrastructural facilities in the anganwadi centres, Chaudhary directed the prompt redressal of the issue. She enquired about the vacant posts of helpers and workers at the centres district-wise and ordered immediate filling up of these at the District level.
Batting for establishing coordination with the Education Department and effective running of pre-primary classes, she directed that the teachers would themselves come to teach in those anganwadi centres which are far away from the schools.