Money meant for women idle

Hyderabad: The women’s empowerment programme under the minority welfare department has not started yet because the state Minority State Finance Corporation, which executes the schemes, is more or less a headless body as its managing director is also full time secretary of the TS Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society. This has resulted in the schemes designed to help women like reservation in bankable schemes, the special finance assistance scheme for women doing marginal business, the scheme for women who are victims of contract marriages and trafficking, remaining on paper.

Mr Mohammed Samad, a social worker, says that there is not sufficient staff to identify the victims of contract marriages. “Rs 20 lakh has been allocated for the rehabilitation of victims of contract marriages, but no person has been benefited so far,” he said. He said the TSMFC was focusing mostly on residential schools, ignoring all other work. For women doing marginal businesses, a grant of Rs 30,000 was extended. Not a single person has been given a grant under this scheme so far, said Mr Mohammed Asif, an activist.

Mr B, Shafiullah, the corporation managing director, said, “We are concentrating on providing vocational training and job oriented courses.” When current commitments have not been met, he talked about future expansion, saying, “We are planning to increase the number of grants to be issued and create awareness among women about the benefits, following which the finance corporation plans to start new economic assistance schemes for women from this year’s budget.” Mr Shafiullah admitted that there was a staff crunch saying, “We have to manage with whatever resources we have.”