State Efforts in the area of Women empowerment :

Rajasthan has in the past decades implemented various programmes and schemes to promote women empowerment and accelerate the state’s progress towards gender equity. The pioneering work under the Women Development programme initiated in the eighties , Policy level work in the area of Women’s policy and Girl Child Policy , creation of a separate Directorate of Women Empowerment under the Women and Child Development Department , drafting legislations for addressing Witch hunting and developing strategic action plan to make Rajasthan Child Marriage Free. Various efforts of the state in different areas are :

Health : National Health Mission implemented in the State of Rajasthan in the last decade has lead to increase in the percentage of institutional deliveries , reduction in maternal and infant mortality rate and enhancing the access of family planning methods for the eligible couples. In terms of education , Government has initiated several scholarships at different levels and also has provided bicycles for girls to the increase the access to higher education . Innovative schemes like transport vouchers were initiatied to aver economic hurdles in accessing education. Various National level programmes like Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan , Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan have been implemented strongly in the area of education to achieve the primary and secondary education objectives.

Rastriya Kishor Swastya Karayakram launched under the National Health Mission envisages to address the Health, Nutritional, reproductive health and mental needs through provision of adolescent health services through identified clinics and through development of peer educators network is implemented in ten identified high priority districts. Schemes like Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation Program (WIFS) and Menstrual Hygiene scheme (MHS) implemented across the state addresses the nutritional and reproductive health aspects of the adolescents.

Social Security : The Bhamasha Scheme aims at making the women independent and generate a sense of security that empowers the women to access various schemes and programmes of the Government without any hurdle. The Bhamasha Insurance scheme helps women and family members to tide over the economic hurdles caused by illness and diseases.

Empowering Adolescent girls In empowering girls and addressing gender based discrimination, schemes like SABLA and Kishori Shakti Yojana to reach out to out of school adolescent girls and providing them an avenue to access information related to health, nutrition , life skills and opportunities for non formal and vocational education is being implemented.

Addressing declining childsex ratio : To address sex selection and girls’ education Directorate of women empowerment has spearheaded the implementation of Beti Bachao Beti Padao Scheme in 14 districts of the State. The landmark scheme of Rajshree Yojana was launched to enhance the value of the girl child survival, health and education was implemented from 2016 onwards. The scheme provides financial assistance to the girls at clear cut intervals linked to the critical milestones in the area of health education .

Child Protection : Protecting the Rights of a child is a important factor in ensuring an holistic growth of the child. The Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) aims to create a protective environment for children and contribute to the improvement in the well-being of children in difficult circumstances, as well as to the reduction of vulnerabilities, situations and actions that lead to abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment and separation of children. Aapki Beti Yojana, a Rajasthan Government Scheme provides cash incentive to girls enrolled in class 1-12 of BPL households who are orphans or have one surviving parent. Mukhya Mantri Hunar Vikash Yojana” started in 2011-12 focuses on providing higher education/skill building programme to beneficiaries of Palanhar Yojana and children staying in Institutional Home (Government and Non Government running Institutional Home).

The State is providing skill development programmes for the children 17 years to 21 years. Several welfare schemes have been initiated by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment for young women who want to work and widow like Financial assistance for marriage of daughters of widows, Financial assistance for widow remarriage etc. In order to make them economically independent, several skill development trainings by Deparment of Women and child development, Rajasthan State Livelihoods Development Corporation have been initiated.

Women Protection : Rajasthan in order to address the violence against women has estabilished Mahila Suraksha Evam Salah Kendra (MSSK) in every police district to address cases related to gender based discrimination and violence against women. At the District level institutional mechanisms has been strengthened to discuss and deliberate the actions taken to address the violence against women through the constitution of Zila Mahila Sahayata Samiti chaired by Zila Pramukh. Aparajita , one stop crisis center, which was initiatied in one hospital in Jaipur has been now scaled upto 14 District hospitals to provide counselling and rehabilitation for victims of violence against women. Apart from strongly implementing the various Gender related legislations , Rajasthan State also has taken the initiative in passing of landmark legislations to address harmful practices like Witch hunting called “ The Rajasthan Prevention ofWitch Hunting Act, 2015” Apart from the Act , the Rules for the Act was also framed by the Government.

Further in order to execute the strategy of community partnership, "CHIRALI: Friends Forever" - a scheme to constitute Community Action Groups encouraing community involvement in curbing violence against women was launched in 2017. Rajasthan is one of the early states which had attested and started the process of Gender Budgetting in its planning stage.

                               Gender equality and women empowerment are universally recognized as core development objectives, fundamental for the realization of human rights, and key to effective and sustainable development outcomes.State has made strides in several spheres of development during the last few decades, the share of women in development has not been equitable. An objective analysis of gender-disaggregated human development indicators shows that women experience discrimination at every stage of their life and the lack of equitable access to quality healthcare, nutrition, education and other services contributes to their subordination and marginalization.