The years 2014 and 2015 saw significant changes in governmental schemes for women and girls across the country. There have been budget cuts in some existing schemes and at the same time money is put aside for new initiatives such as the national “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” campaign which aims to ensure survival and protection and education of the girl child.
As CSR has been working for years to battle the dreadful crime of sex selective abortions through the Meri Shakti Meri Beti (MSMB) project, it is not surprising that the organization has been identified as the nodal agency to implement “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” in five districts of Haryana. The major benefit for the national government of this partnership derives from CSR’s experience and knowledge of the ground realities and its innovative approaches to the field.
CSR has observed for example that there are significant hurdles for women and girls to access the different welfare schemes aiming to uplift their status in society. Community members often do not have resources to find out what they are entitled to. Moreover, online information provided by websites of governmental institutions is often outdated or incomplete. For this reason CSR is developing a Welfare Scheme App to bridge such gaps between providers and users of welfare.
The app is currently in testing phase. In its beta version, it provides clear and up-to-date information on the available schemes for women and girls living in Delhi. It contains details on the benefits, the eligibility and time frame of the different schemes. Additionally it also guides women and girls through the application process by informing them which documents they need in order to apply for the respective schemes. The app is expected to revolutionize the way information about social welfare is currently provided to social workers and to women and girls themselves.
We believe that facilitating access to the promised benefits of schemes to their target groups is a crucial step in making a change towards gender equality. We look therefore look forward to the feedback from our current testers so that the app can be released to the general public soon.
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