Women & Child Welfare in Bangaru Telangana

Telangana is one of the few states where a separate department is functioning for development and welfare of women and children. In many states, these come under the Social Welfare Department.

The key activities of the department

• Delivery of a package of services like nutrition, immunization, health counselling and referral services, pre-school education etc. to women (pregnant/lactating/adolescent girls) and children (0-6 years) through Anganwadi Centers
• Institutions for women to provide them with shelter, food, trainings etc.
• Institutions for children, who are orphans, semi-orphans, destitutes etc., to facilitate reintegration into families through processes of adoption, foster care and sponsorship.
• Implementation of Acts and Programmes for safety and security of women and children, such as DV Act, JJ Act, POCSO Act, Nirbhaya Act, Child Marriages Prohibition Act etc.

Anganwadi Centers

As shown in table 1, a total of 35,700 Aganwadi centers of which 31711 are main centers and 3989 are mini centers operating in the State.

Table 1: Aganwadi Centers

	Total Projects	149
1	Anganwadi Centers	35700
2	Main Centers (For 400-800 Population in Urban and Rural Areas and 300+ Population in Tribal Areas)	31711
3	Mini Centers (For 150-400 Population in Urban, Rural and For 150-300 in Tribal Areas)	3989

Institutions for Children

The Institutions of children take care of those children who are orphans, semi-orphans, destitutes, CNCP etc. There are total 31 Sisuvihars (for 0-6 children) and 35 children homes operating in all 10 districts in the state.

Institutions for Women

These institutions take care of women who are destitutes, abandoned, widows etc. Free boarding, lodging, education and skill development are being provided. There are in total 2 Service homes, 2 State homes, 1 Rescue home, 2 Collegiate home, 5 Working women’s hostels and 1 Old age home are functioning in the State.

Major Women and Children Issues Addressed

• An amount of Rs.87.00 Lakh was sanctioned towards financial relief and rehabilitation of women victims of sexual assault, trafficking, dowry deaths etc. under CRPC and POCSO Act.

• To provide better opportunities to destitute girl children residing in Children Homes the inmates studying in 4th and 5th classes are being given special coaching for appearing in the entrance examination for admission in Govt. Residential Schools.

• 70% of the seats in Durgabai Deshmukh Women Technical Training Institute at Hyderabad are earmarked for Orphan girls/Children of Service Homes, Children Homes and Swadhar Homes etc. During 2014-15, 167 Children were admitted in WTTI under this category.

• Under Integrated Child protection Scheme (ICPS), District Child Protection Units (DCPUs) have been established in all the 10 districts with required staff and District Child Protection Plans have been prepared as per the situational analysis.

• 154 Child Marriages are stopped

• Rescued 459 Child labourers

• Rescued 158 Street & Begging children in the state

• Child friendly villages identified in all 10 districts in Telangana to reduce number of child labour, abuses, child marriages, child beggars, orphans, semi-orphans, without family care, affected with chronic diseases, and others if any.

• 95 children in-country and 5 inter-country adoptions facilitated.

• 86 cases registered under POCSO Act.

• 1,880 children are supported under Children in Need of Care and Protection.

• 585 children given sponsorship & foster care.

• 85 Licences issued to Child Care Institutions (CCIs).

Safety and Security of Women

• A High-Level Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Department for Women, Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens with senior IAS and IPS officers as members to make recommendations on issues related to women’s safety and security.

• A Gender Resource Center has been established at the Directorate of Women

• One-Stop Crisis Centers have been planned to be made functional in the districts to provide medical, legal and psychological support services under one roof to women survivors of violence. So far, OSCs have been inaugurated in all districts except Karimnagar.

• Hyderabad District is selected under “Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao” programme of Govt. of India.

Enhanced honorarium of AWWs/AWHs

• The State Govt. has announced during the current budget session regarding increase in the honorariums of AWWs and AWHs from Rs.4200 per month to Rs.7000 and from Rs.2200 per month to Rs.4500 respectively.

• The Govt. also announced Rs.1,000 per Center as one-time grant for providing utensils. The budget requirement is Rs.3.57 crore.

Activities during 2015-16

• Quantities and rates of commodities have been revised under Arogya Lakshmi

• Constituency Review Meetings organized for orienting the PRI representatives on departmental programmes and completed in 51 of 104 rural constituencies

• Revised guidelines issued on roles and responsibilities of AWWs and AWHs issued

• OSCs have been set up in all districts except Karimnagar

• 1st meeting of SLGB of Gender Resource Center convened under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary
SHE-Taxies

• An amount of Rs.38 Lakhs is released towards subsidy and margin money under SHE-Taxi scheme which is to be launched on 15th August, 2015

Aadhar Enrollment of Under-5 Children-

• WD&CW Department entered into MoU with UIDAI and became a Registrar and Enrollment Agency for enrolling children under-5. Registrar Code: 866 and EA code:0866 allotted to the department.

• Training of Anganwadi Workers from Gajwel, Siricilla and Qutbullapur mandals has been completed and they received certificates as Aadhar operators

• 100 Tabs are being procured by the Department for starting the enrollment process