In a move to empower women in the state, the Government of Madhya Pradesh has increased the reservation for ladies in all state services from 33 percent to 35 percent. The decision was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav at Mantralaya in the state capital Bhopal earlier this week.
“Reservation (for women) in all recruitment under Government services in Madhya Pradesh has been increased to 35 per cent from 33 per cent. The decision was taken earlier and today it was approved by the state cabinet. It is a major step towards women empowerment in the state. This will be applicable to the entire recruitment process conducted by the MP Public Service Commission (MPPSC) and Employee Selection Board (ESB) across all departments in the state,” Deputy CM of Madhya Pradesh, Rajendra Shukla told the media after the cabinet meeting.
Other decisions by the state cabinet
The MP cabinet has approved to open 254 new fertiliser sales centres across the state. With this, farmers would get relief from long queues and get fertiliser easily with cash payment.
The council of ministers has also approved establishing a 660 MegaWatt critical thermal power plant in Sarni by decommissioning the earlier power plants units of total 830 MW units (two power plants of 205 MW each and another two plants of 210 MW each).
The cabinet has also granted permission to increase the recruitment age of Assistant Professors in Medical Colleges from 40 years to 50 years in the state.
Support to minor pregnant rape victims
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh government is planning to provide assistance and support to minor rape victims, who get pregnant as a result of rape and their children. The state cabinet has allocated a fund of Rs 10 lakh to each District Collector across the state to provide essential support for minor rape victims who become pregnant. The money will be provided from the Nirbhaya Fund, which is an amount of money set up by the central government to support initiatives that ensure the safety of women and children.
Govt schemes to benefit women in Madhya Pradesh
Keeping women empowerment as a priority, the Government of Madhya Pradesh runs several schemes to benefit ladies and girl children. These include the following:
Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana
The Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana aims to enhance the economic self-reliance, health, and nutritional status of women. The scheme aims to empower women economically and strengthen their decision-making role in the family and society. To address this disparity and improve women’s economic self-reliance and health, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced the Mukhyamantri Ladli Bahna Yojana on January 28, 2023.
Chief Minister Women’s Empowerment Scheme
The Chief Minister Women Empowerment Scheme was started in September 2013 with the objective of making women self-reliant. The beneficiaries of this scheme include rape victims, trafficked rescued women who live below the poverty line, acid attack victims, women released from jail, abandoned women who live below the poverty line, Government and non-government shelter homes, girls’ houses, maintenance homes etc., women suffering from dowry harassment and victims of child marriage.
The scheme provides assistance to women in emergencies, reinstalling the victim, motivation for self-employment, making women self-reliant, aims to increase the social, economic and educational level of women, rehabilitates into the mainstream of society by making distressed helpless destitute women self-reliant.
Chief Minister Kanya Vivah Yojana
A scheme for providing financial assistance for group marriage of destitute, poor, widowed, abandoned women has been started in the name of Chief Minister Kanya Vivah Yojana since 2006.
The beneficiary should be the domicile of Madhya Pradesh, the girl’s age should be more than 18 years and boy’s age should be more then 21 years and the beneficiary should be registered on Samagra Portal.
