80 more Saheli centres to help empower women

NEW DELHI:  To ensure the participation of women in workforce— especially during the pandemic, the Delhi government has added 80 more Saheli Samanvay Kendra (SSK). These units will operate from Anganwadi (child care centre) hubs. The scheme was announced by the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia last year in his budget speech. According to the plan, 500 SSKs are to be formed across the city to strengthen the role of women in the economy.

These units will act as local “incubation centres” for individual start-ups and to promote self-help groups (SHGs). The officials aware of the project said that 21 such facilities had already been set up in March. “In view of the severity of the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, and to meet the objectives of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) for providing care to the children, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls, other locations have been identified.

Now the SSK services can be rolled out with the use of existing resources,” said an official. The official added that a circular was issued by the women and child development (WCD) department last week to operationalise the SSKs with immediate effect at 80 locations. “The order says that the women and child-centric activities will be started immediately. Under the Saheli Samvad (Friend Dialogue) initiative, the centre will organise dialogue with women and adolescent girls on social themes such as health, nutrition, livelihoods, rights and entitlements.

It will create awareness on matters concerning them and their children, and collectively find possible solutions through locally available resources. Emergent needs like Covid appropriate behaviour, vaccination and boosting immunity through nutrition education can be the focus areas of ‘Samvad’,” said the official. Mahila Sahayata Prakosht (Women Help Desk) will be set up to connect women through a single-window information delivery system with various schemes, services, programmes and facilitate linkages to increase uptake of services to women and children.