Celebrating the International Women’s Day, Punjab Government on Monday made a host of announcements and launched a slew of projects aimed at empowering women. At the same time, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh expressed hope that India will soon see the women taking on new challenges in defence forces combat units.
Virtually launching several women-centric projects in collaboration with the United Nations and other specialized global agencies and special Saanjh Shakti police help desks and helpline for women, the Chief Minister underlined the State Government’s commitment to the welfare of women, with more opportunities to enable their growth and development.
Capt Amarinder expressed satisfaction at the fact that girls have been consistently outperforming boys in examinations, supplementing incomes of poor families through self-help groups, and even serving the nation in the defence forces, while performing their everyday role as a mother, wife, sister, and daughter.
Referring to the schemes launched on Monday, the Chief Minister said that these “out-of-the-box initiatives” would be instrumental in ensuring further protection from crimes against women and safeguard their rights in letter and in spirit.
“Efforts are also afoot to introduce gender sensitization curriculum in school syllabus and impart skill training to women to improve their employability, capacity building, and eliminating anaemia,” he said.
Apart from announcing projects with UN Women, UNDP, UN Population Fund, J-PAL and FUEL, the Chief Minister launched Sanjh Shakti Helpdesks at all the 382 police stations and 181 Sanjh Shakti Helpline to be run by the Punjab Police for responding to grievances and complaints of women, as well as children and the elderly.
He also announced appointment letters for 2407 Master Cadre women teachers of the School Education Department.