Scheme to raise awareness among minority women

New Delhi: India's Planning Commission is starting a scheme to create awareness among minority women about issues and rights that can empower them socially, educationally and economically, and also teach them the importance of hygiene and sanitation.

To be implemented over the next five years with the help of the Ministry Women and Child Development, the scheme will cost Rs 20 crore.

"We hope to launch the scheme soon. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is working out the details," Planning Commission Member Syeda Hameed said, adding that the scheme will be implemented with the help of NGOs.

"Women need to be told about certain good things like why they should send their children to schools and how health is important and where one can get health facilities," Hameed said.

The government has recently estimated that the literacy rate among Muslim women is as low as 21 per cent.

"There are no two opinions about the high degree of backwardness among Muslim women. They have been doubly discriminated. Muslim women do not even question their status," Hameed said.

She further said that a lot needs to be done for the overall empowerment of Indian Muslim women in particular.

Agreeing to this, former Member of Parliament Subhashini Ali said that Muslim women are faced with a huge problem of inequality and discrimination.

"How to bring them on a par with others continues to be a major concern. The government has a major responsibility to address their problems," Ali, who is the President of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), said.

AIDWA's national convention of Muslim women held here August 27 had sought among other things equal economic, educational, employment, health and citizenship rights for these women.

India's 2001 census says Muslims account for 13.4 per cent of the country's over one billion population, while Christians and Sikhs are respectively 2.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent.

Subrato Mukherjee, a professor of Political Science in Delhi University, said, "Real empowerment and leadership development will be possible only when Muslim women are equipped with education and basic skills."

"The government should train and provide them with reasonable employment, and the spillover benefits will lead to the development of real leadership. It has to be done at a large scale," he added.