Saturday, October 31, 2009

India: Law Detering Honour Killings

From the Times of India:
Following a spate of reports on honour killings, women and child development minister Krishna Tirath on Wednesday said the government may consider a law to prevent such killings.

"We may consider a law if there is need," Tirath said. The minister also announced a slew of programmes that would dominate her agenda in the coming days. The ministry is launching a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant women and will also operationalise the ambitious National Mission for Empowerment of Women.

Stressing the need of nutritional support for women and children, Tirath said the ministry was in the process of launching new schemes like Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Conditional Maternity benefit Scheme for women.

The schemes are named `Sabla' and `Indira Gandhi Matratava Sehyog Yojana' respectively. Sabla is aimed at empowering adolescent girls along with improvement in nutritional and health status and upgrading various skills like home skills, life skills and vocational skills.

The `Conditional Maternity Benefit Scheme' is to support pregnant women belonging to the poor and economically weaker sections of society. It entails providing Rs 4,000 as wage loss to every woman after she gives birth to a child. The ministry plans to launch the scheme on November 19 to mark the birth anniversary of former PM Indira Gandhi.

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