The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today gave a comprehensive exposition of the government’s vision of women empowerment. He said that absence of basic facilities like housing, electricity, toilets, gas, roads, hospitals and school has impacted the women, poor women in particular. most severely. Today when we are entering 75th year of Independence and we see the progress of last seven decades, feeling is inevitable that these problems should have been addressed decades ago, the Prime Minister said. He was speaking after launching Ujjawala 2.0 at Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh via video conference today.
Prime Minister said that leaking roof, absence of electricity, sickness in the family, waiting for it to get dark for toilet, absence of toilet in schools affect our mothers and daughters directly. The Prime Minister struck a personal note and said that our generation has grown seeing our mothers suffering from smoke and heat.
The Prime Minister questioned if our energy is spent on dealing with these basic needs, how can we move towards 100 years of our independence. How can a family or a society dream big and achieve them if they keep struggling for basic facilities. Feeling that dreams can be fulfilled is essential for a society to achieve its dreams. “How can a nation become aatmnirbhar (Self-reliant) without aatmvishwas (self confidence)” asked the Prime Minister.
Shri Modi said that in 2014 we asked these questions from ourselves. It was very clear that these problems need to be addressed in a definite time frame. He said that our daughters will be able to come out of the house and kitchen and contribute extensively in nation building only when the problems related to house and kitchen are solved first. Therefore, in the last 6-7 years, he said, the Government has worked to get solutions to various issues on a mission mode. He listed many such interventions like
- Crores of toilets built across the country under Swachh Bharat Mission
- More than 2 crore houses for poor families, mostly, in the names of women
- Rural roads
- 3 crore families got electricity connection under SaubhagyaYojna
- Ayushman Bharat is giving 50 crore people cover for upto 5 lakh rupees worth of free medical treatment
- Direct money transfer for vaccination and nutrition during pregnancy under MatruVandana Yojana
- 30 thousand crore rupees were deposited by the government in the Jan Dhan Account of women during Corona period
- Our sister are getting piped wanted under Jal Jeevan Mission.
He said that these schemes have brought massive transformation in the lives of women.
The Prime Minister noted that the resolve of health, convenience and empowerment of sisters has received great impetus from Ujjwala Yojana. In the first phase of the scheme, 8 crore women from poor, dalit, deprived, backward and tribal families were given free gas connections. He said the benefit of this free gas connection was felt in the era of the Corona pandemic. Crores of poor families got free gas cylinders for months when business was at stand still and movement was restricted. “Imagine, if Ujjwala was not there, what would have been the state of these poor sister”, asked the Prime Minister.
