Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK)

Announced in Budget 2017-18, Mahila Shakti Kendras are meant to provide “one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition”.

• MSK has been envisaged to build upon by leveraging available resources of variety of schemes/programmes of the government at the district/block level. Student volunteers will cater to awareness about government schemes/ programs, training and capacity building for empowerment of rural women through block level intervention.
• It was planned to be expanded in a phased manner, initially only 115 most backward districts to be covered but in 2018-19, the program was expanded to 220 more districts.

Components of MSK: National Level: Domain based experts provide support in implementation of all women centric schemes/programmes of the Government to strengthen the conceptual and programmatic basis of such schemes through convergence with Ministries and State Government/UT Administration.

• State Level: At the state level, the State Resource Centre for Women (SRCW) under the State Governments (Department of WCD/Social Welfare) provides technical assistance towards implementing programmes, laws and schemes meant for
• women through effective coordination at the State/UT level.
• District Level: A new component namely District Level Centre for Women (DLCW) has been envisaged which collates information on government programmes, schemes and services meant for women empowerment (including BBBP, One Stop Centre, Women Helpline, Mahila Police Volunteers, Swadhar, Ujjawala, etc.) to cover 640 districts and serves as a link between village/block and state level.
• Block Level: The block level initiative is meant to promote community participation through involvement of Student Volunteers for empowering rural women and NSS/NCC cadre students can also be associated.

Such initiatives are already present like One Stop Centre and government must try to make existing schemes effective.