Ahead of International Women's Day, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced a slew of measures for the safety, welfare and empowerment of women, in general, and employees in particular. Candlelight rallies will be taken out across the State on March 7.
A 10 per cent discount will be given on mobile phones purchased by women from select shopping centres on March 8 and they need to download Disha App. A special day off will be given to all women personnel in the Police Department on March 8. Two women constables from every wing of the Police Department will be felicitated.
These decisions were taken by the Chief Minister in a review meeting of Women and Child Welfare Department held on Thursday. Jagan directed officials to set up 2,000 stands with QR codes across the State to enable women to download Disha App. He agreed to give five additional casual leaves to women employees. A sum of `5 lakh on behalf of the government was announced for the Non-Gazetted Women Employees Union. "SERP and MEPMA will sign an MoU with Hindustan Lever Limited to make sanitary napkins available in shops set up by YSR Cheyutha beneficiaries at cheaper rates compared to open market prices,'' he said.
Further, the State government will organise annual health check-up camps for Anganwadi women. Special emphasis will be laid on training of girls of Plus-1 and Plus-2 to prepare them for competitive exams. Hoardings containing details of Disha initiatives should be set up in junior colleges and higher educational institutions. Wide publicity should be given to Disha initiatives, he said. During the review on YSR Pre-Primary Schools, the Chief Minister inspected books and teaching aids designed for pre-primary children, which were displayed by the Women and Child Welfare Department.
On the progress of Nadu-Nedu works in Anganwadis, Jagan said Anganwadi buildings works should be started simultaneously in urban and rural areas. The officials informed the Chief Minister that construction of new buildings and revamping of existing buildings is being done at 44,119 Anganwadi centres across the State.
The Chief Minister said 4,17,508 books will be distributed to children of PP-1 and 4,17,508 books to PP-2 class children. The distribution of books will be started on March 20 and it should be completed by April 5. The government has already distributed 16 of the total 26 teaching aids to Anganwadis and the remaining 10 will be distributed within a month.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to provide English-Telugu dictionaries to schools and ensure that students learn the meaning of a new English word every day and a similar programme should be implemented in Anganwadi centres. YSR Poshana and YSR Sampoorna Poshana Plus schemes are being promoted in a big way through display of posters in village and ward secretariats and Anganwadi centres. An SOP booklet on food and hygiene is being provided to children, besides circulating videos among students. Women and Child Welfare Minister Taneti Vanitha, DGP D Gautam Sawang and other senior officials attended the review meet.
