Tag Archives: Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi gives National Level Awards to Anganwadi Workers

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Massive programme of training AWWs to impart pre-school education being taken up: WCD Minister

The Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi gave away National Level Awards to anganwadi workers to recognize their exemplary voluntary service in the field of child development and related areas under the ICDS Scheme, at New Delhi today. The Awards for the year 2016-17 were given to 51 awardees today. These awards are given annually.

Speaking on the occasion, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi congratulated the awardees and urged them to keep up their dedication to the cause of child development, community mobilization and awareness generation while delivering the ICDS Services. The functionaries anganwadi workers and anganwadi helpers play a pivotal role in child development since the responsibility of taking care of small children has been given to these frontline workers across the country under the ICDS, the Minister explained.

Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that till now, the role of anganwadi workers revolved around mainly distribution and provision of food to children and lactating mothers. However, the Government is now shifting the emphasis to covert anganwadis into centres of pre-school education. As a result, a massive exercise is being launched to train the anganwadi workers to become pre-school teachers, the WCD Minister disclosed. There are currently about 27 lakhs anganwadi workers and helpers at 14 lakhs anganwadi centres across the country.

Earlier addressing the anganwadi workers, Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Smt Krishna Raj said that the anganwadis can contribute to the Swachh Bharat Mission in a big way. This can be done by connecting nutrition to cleanliness i.e. providing nutrition to children and lactating mothers in a clean environment. She urged the awardees to become an example for other functionaries and to motivate them to deliver better quality ICDS Services.

WCD Secretary, Shri Rakesh Srivastav, in his welcome address, said that the WCD Ministry is making all out efforts to improve anganwadi services. Some of the recent initiatives taken up in this regard include pan-India expansion of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, electronic transfer of honorarium of anganwadi workers, guidelines for ECCE, food fortification, e-learning portal of WCD Ministry among many others.

The Award at the National Level comprises a cash prize of Rs.25,000/- and a citation. State Level Award comprises a cash prize of Rs. 5,000/- and a citation. As per guidelines, National Level Awards to AWWs are given to the awardees nominated by States/UTs out of the State/UT level awardees. The number of nominations of AWWs at National Level depends on the size of the State/UT and operational ICDS Projects. The scheme for awarding anganwadi workers at the National and State levels was formulated in the year 2000-01.

Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi launches Sexual Harassment electronic-Box (SHe-Box)

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Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi launches Sexual Harassment electronic-Box (SHe-Box) for registering complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace

WCD ministry to conduct an all India survey to assess the magnitude of problem related to sexual harassment of women at workplace.

The Minister of Women & Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi launched an online complaint management system titled Sexual Harassment electronic–Box (SHe-Box) for registering complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace in New Delhi today. The complaint management system has been developed to ensure the effective implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (the SH Act), 2013.

This portal is an initiative to provide a platform to women working or visiting any office of Central Government (Central Ministries, Departments, Public Sector Undertakings, Autonomous Bodies and Institutions etc.) to file complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace under the SH Act. Those who had already filed a written complaint with the concerned Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) constituted under the SH Act are also eligible to file their complaint through this portal. The SHe-Box portal can be accessed at the link given below:
http://www.wcd-sh.nic.in/

Speaking at the launch, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said that though currently this facility has been extended to employees of Central Government, the scope of the portal will soon be extended to women employees of private sector also.
The WCD Minister said that there are some surveys, which give the extent of sexual harassment of women at workplace. However, the WCD Ministry will carry out a national level survey to asses and understand the magnitude of the problem.
This portal (SHe-Box) is an effort to provide speedier remedy to women facing sexual harassment at workplace as envisaged under the SH Act. Once a complaint is submitted to the portal, it will be directly sent to the ICC of the concerned Ministry/Department/PSU/Autonomous Body etc. having jurisdiction to inquire into the complaint. Through this portal, WCD as well as complainant can monitor the progress of inquiry conducted by the ICC.
Government of India is the largest employer in the country employing 30.87 lakh people to carry out its various functions. As per the Census of Central Government employees, 2011, women constitute 10.93% (3.37 lakhs) of the total regular Central Government employees.
The WCD Ministry has taken several measures to ensure implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act. The Ministry has published a Handbook on the SH Act with the objective to provide information about the provisions of the Act in an easy to use practical manner. Further, the Ministry in collaboration with Institute of Statistical Training and Management (ISTM), New Delhi has prepared a training module to build the capacity of government officials above the provisions of the SH Act and develop in them professional competence to implement the same. Recently, on 5th May, 2017, the Ministry in collaboration with ISTM organised a day long workshop for chairpersons of Internal Complaint Committee constituted in various Ministries/Departments of Central Government.
Besides, in order to create wide spread awareness about the Act across the country both in organized and unorganized sector, MWCD has identified a pool of 29 resource institutions willing to provide capacity building programs i.e. training, workshops etc on the SH Act. The list of these institutions is available at the link given below:
Link:http://wcd.nic.in/act/recommended-panel-institutes-or-organizations-under-sexual-harassment-women-workplace
Link to Training Module for Two Day Workshop on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013: http://wcd.nic.in/act/training-module-two-day-workshop-sexual-harassment-women-workplace-prevention-prohibition-and

The SHe-Box will provide a platform to these empanelled institutes/organisations to share their capacity building activities with the Ministry which in turn will be able to monitor the activities of these institutes/organizations so empanelled from across the country. As of now, as per the reports received, in the past 5 months, the empanelled institutes/organisations/companies have organised 35 capacity building exercises which were attended by approximately 1700 people.
Ensuring the dignity and safety of women must be first priority for any digital society. Towards realisation of the vision of the Digital India programme, the Ministry is promoting utilisation of information and communication technology to achieve the goal of gender equality and women empowerment. It is an effort to utilise the digital space to enable speedier response to the complaints of women against sexual harassment at workplace.
The Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Smt Krishna Raj; Secretary WCD, Shri Rakesh Srivastava and senior officers of the Ministry as well as its associated organizations were present at today’s launch event.