TSWB Initiative: Women health care centres all set to start

CHARMINAR: The Telangana State Wakf Board (TSWB) has planned to conduct seminars at Haj House and start skill development centres on Waqf lands for creating employment opportunities for Muslim youth, and is soon going to start health care centres for the women across the state.

The Waqf officials said that, women in rural areas face gender-based inequalities, exclusions, discrimination and violence when it is about accessing healthcare. "A lot of women die during pregnancy and childbirth. There are several such incidents in Old City even today due to lack of awareness. These deaths can be prevented if women have access to quality maternal health care before, during and after childbirth. These health care centres to be constructed on untouched Waqf lands will fill that gap," said Shahnawaz Qasim, chief executive officer, TSWB.

Centres for skill development are also planned as the Waqf Board has requested the central government to grant permission for establishing the first centre at the Haj House building in Nampally under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana scheme and start training programmes from this year.

TSWB decided to take this decision of establishing such centres to give the society things in the form of education, employment and health care. "We want to utilise the Waqf lands to provide health care, train the minority youth and generate employment opportunities so that we can support economically deprived sections," said Qasim.