COVER HINDI - Ministry of Women and Child Development

Mahila Mandals (MM)
9.14 The Mahila Mandals arrange activities for women
and children in their respective areas. The expenditure
under the scheme is borne by the Central Social Welfare
Board to the extent of 75% of the approved budget and
the remaining 25% is met by the Voluntary Organisations
or by the State Govt. as their matching contribution. Under
the programme, services like Balwadis for the children,
craft activities, social education, maternity services for
women etc. are provided. At present, there are 146 units
running in 17 states covering 48752 beneficiaries under
the Mahila Mandal Programme.
9.15 State-wise amount sanctioned/released during 2005-
06 and 2006-07 as on (31.12.2006) are at Annexure
XXXV and Annexure XXXVI respectively.
Awareness Generation Programme (AGP)
9.16 The scheme of Awareness Generation Programme
aims at generating awareness amongst women &
community at large on rights, status and problems of
women in particular and other social concerns. Under the
scheme, camps are being organized, which provide a
platform for Women to come together, exchange their
experiences and ideas and in the process develop an
understanding of reality and also the way to tackle their
problems and fulfill their needs. The programme of
Awareness Generation Camps was introduced by the
Central Social Welfare Board in the year 1986-87 with
the main aim to identify the needs of rural and poor women
and to increase women’s active participation in
development and other allied programmes.
9.17 The programme also orients them in a manner by
which they can involve themselves in the effort to meet
their felt needs in the area of social development. Issues
such as the status of women, women and law, women and
health, community health and hygiene, technology for
women, environment and the economy are being taken up
in such camps. The programme also enables women to
organize themselves and strengthen their participation in
decision making in the family and in society and to deal
with social issues including atrocities on women and
children.
9.18 Training of organizers is an integral part of the
scheme. Under the programme of Awareness Generation
Camps, organizations are provided a grant of Rs.10,000/for
8 days camps and 2 days follow up. During the year
2005-06, 5076 Awareness Generation Camps have been
sanctioned and an amount of Rs.490.66 Lakhs has been
released benefiting 1,26,900 women. In 2006-07, 260
camps have been sanctioned, and an amount of Rs.163.00
Lakhs has been released up to 11.12.2006.
9.19 The State-wise amount sanctioned/released and
number of beneficiaries covered under AGP during the
year 2005-06 and 2006-07 (31.12.2006) are in Annexure
XXXVII and Annexure XXXVIII respectively.
Condensed Courses of Education for Women
(CCEW)
9.20 The Scheme of Condensed Course of Education was
initiated by CSWB in 1958 to cater to the needs of adult
girls/women who could not join mainstream education
system or who were drop out from formal schools. The
scheme aims to provide educational opportunities to girls/
women above the age of 15 years alongwith additional
inputs of skill-development/vocational training. The main
focus of the scheme is to ensure that contents of the course
are need-based and modified according to local
requirement and simultaneously targeting towards various
stages of educational levels of primary/middle/high school
and matric/secondary level courses. The Condensed
Course Programme gained immense popularity due to its
flexible approach and combination of formal and nonformal
structure. There has been persistent demand from
State Boards and voluntary organizations to allocate at
least one course for each block in the country.
9.21 The programme also aims at instilling confidence
among adult women to gain strength and to enhance their
accessibility to socio economic processes. It is a useful
programme to promote gender equality and empowerment
to enable women to act as agents of change and
development. During the year 2005-06, 700 courses have
been sanctioned in order to benefit 17500 women.
146 Annual Report 2006-07