Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) Laws and policies may be rectified and amended to speed up implementation of projects for women and child development, new minister Krishna Tirath said Saturday.
After assuming charge as the minister of state (independent charge) for women and child development, Tirath said here that some of her initial initiatives would include setting up of National Mission for Empowerment of Women, restructuring of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh and Conditional Maternity Benefit Scheme for rural and cluster areas of the country.

“The women and child development ministry is a big department and concerns 75 percent population of the country. If there is any deficiency or lacuna in the policies regarding them, I will work towards removing them,” she said.

“There are a lot of laws regarding female foeticide and if there are any lacunae in them we will rectify and amend them. Education is the most important tool to prevent such cases,” Tirath said.

The new women and child development minister further said: “A lot of work needs to be done. In the cabinet meeting today (Saturday) several points about the women and child development ministry were discussed and they will be included in the presidential address.”

“As the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on empowerment of women, I had given many recommendations and sought many action-taken reports. I will try to take them to their logical conclusion,” added the debutant minister.

The minister stated that for ensuring protective environment for children she would give emphasis to the implementation of the recently approved Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and review the National Policy for Children which was formulated in 1974.

Tirath emphasised that her top priority will be to evolve National Policy for Women and Child Development.

Immediately after assuming charge, she had a meeting with senior officers of the ministry and discussed various programmes, schemes and issues relating to the ministry.