MoWD fails to provide any relief to women: Rs 586.512 million allocated in PSDP

Despite huge budgetary allocation of Rs 586.512 million in public sector development programme (PSDP), the ministry of women development (MoWD) has failed to provide any relief to women. Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that out of the total, an amount of Rs 385 million was allocated for Gender Reform Action Plan.
They said Rs 1.7 million were allocated for the provision of financial assistance to destitute women, widows and orphans. The committee scrutinised all the applications and only 620 applicants were considered eligible for payment allegedly on nepotism basis, they claimed. The ministry also provided Rs 22.299 million for 16 schemes being executed by the NGOs. The ministry has launched three pilot projects in collaboration with the executing agencies Khushali Bank, First Women Bank Ltd and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme under " National Fund for Advancement of Rural Women", they said.
An amount of Rs 100 million was allocated to alleviate rural poverty with special focus on rural women living below poverty line with the purpose to provide 23,000 jobs including creating self-employment opportunities, sources said. Out of the total allocated amount for rural women the share of the government was Rs 84.018 million and the contribution by the executing agency was Rs 26.752 million, sources said.
The ministry also launched $4.5 million Women, Political Schools (WPS) project, which focuses on all the four provinces as well as the federally administered tribal and northern areas. The ministry also approved 10 district resource centres (DRCs) for women councillors in the premises of district complex or close to district councils in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sargodha, Multan, Peshawar, Hangu, Quetta, Jafferabad, Karachi and Sukkur, sources said.