Punjab CM dedicates January as 'Dheeyan Di Lohri' to promote women empowerment
Jan 25, 2021
Patiala (Punjab) [India], January 25 : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday kick-started the National Girl Child Day celebrations with a clarion call to protect the life and liberty of girls.
The state government took the decision to dedicate the month of January as 'Dheeyan Di Lohri' to underline the need to create grass root level awareness in order to improve Punjab's Girl Child Sex Ratio. The ratio has already gone up from 890/1000 in 2013-14 to 920/1000 during 2019-20.
"Even religious scriptures accord high status to women. The girls are consistently outshining boys at various levels; they continue to prove their mettle year after year. Women only need the motivation to make a mark in every sphere and opportunities for them are growing," Singh said.
The Chief Minister listed out various measures taken by his government to nurture women's power, including 30% reservation for them in Government jobs, 50% reservation in Panchayat and local body elections, among others. He said that the recently announced 50% concession in bus fare for women scheme would be launched shortly.
He further cited the Mata Tripta Mahila Yojana, which has been launched with the aim to protect the rights and interests of women at every stage from birth till old age. It will empower 8 lakh Women Headed Households (WHH), he said.
"Another novel initiative in the form of Kasturba Gandhi MahilaYojana has been launched with a view to ensure 100% coverage of women under all existing schemes through sustained outreach activities," the Chief Minister added.
He also felicitated five beneficiaries -Suman, Savneet Kaur, Sumanpreet Kaur, Shaganpreet Kaur, and Prabhsimran Kaur- of different social security schemes.
"As many as 27314 Anganwadi centres did a commendable job during Covid-19 peak time as frontline warriors. I express gratitude to the Chief Minister for taking these various initiatives for women empowerment, in addition to the Poshan Abhiyan aimed at providing nutritional diet to women," said Aruna Chaudhary, State Minister of Women and Child Development.
Incidentally, though the National Girl Child Day was on January 24, the state government has celebrated the occasion on January 25.
