As a tribute to ?Matri Shakti? in Uttarakhand and to ensure all-round development of women and children in the hill state, Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri presented a gender budget for 2007-08 in the state assembly. Presenting his first budget he said life of the women in the hill region is extremely tough, as they have to bear the burden of working both in the fields and at home. Keeping this in mind, our government has made special provisions in the budget to meet specific needs of women development.
He proposed to set up 1,872 new Anganwadi Centres and 2,676 new mini Anganwadi Centres. At present there are 7,792 Anganwadi Centres in the state. With an objective to lift standard of living of women in remote areas, he said cooking gas connections would be provided to women on a priority basis. A provision of Rs 8 crore has been made for this purpose.
To encourage higher education among girls of BPL families, a ?Gaura Devi Kanya Dhan Yojana? would be launched with a budgetary provision of Rs 20 crore. Training programmes for elected women panchayat representatives and setting up of neo-natal units in all government hospitals were among the other initiatives proposed in the budget.
