TNN | Sep 5, 2016, 06.56 AM IS
PUNE: Women from marginalized communities in the city, including domestic workers, street vendors and waste-pickers, have not been able to access government schemes and entitlements for want of basic documents like ration and ID cards, a recent study has revealed.
As many as 280 women from seven urban settlements of Pune Municipal Corporation were surveyed as a part of the study, which was conducted by the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR). "Around 33% of the respondents claimed that they were excluded from universal schemes like Aadhaar, food security and voter cards due to their inability to produce basic identity and citizenship documents," the study found.
Since these women have been kept out of the ambit of basic citizenship entitlements, they cannot even avail key welfare schemes like pension, slum rehabilitation and free health services, which have been specially designed for the development of marginalised women, it observed.
The study done by as many as 24 researchers drawn from the community was released on Saturday by mayor Prashant Jagtap at Lahuji Vastad School in Yerawada to launch a project for enhancing the access of urban poor women to development and welfare schemes of PMC.
The project will be implemented by the CFAR with support from the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI) in the seven identified settlements of Yerawada and Vishrantwadi in the form a Single Window Centre which will educate and inform community women about various schemes of PMC and then enrol them as beneficiaries.
Reflecting on the findings of the study, mayor Jagtap said "Women constitute half of the city's population. It is unfortunate to note that many of them have not been able to access even basic schemes and entitlements. The study shows that there are some bottlenecks at the level of scheme providers and at the level of the seekers too. We need to counter both these hurdles to better realize the actual intent of providing for the welfare and development of the marginalized," he said.
Kantabai Dhende, a resident of 112 B settlement in Yerawada and one of the community researchers, shared the difficulties encountered by women while accessing basic schemes. "Women who are destitute, single or even disabled do not possess a valid ID or residence proof. To avail any scheme, these documents need to be produced," Dhende said.
Surekha Jadhav from Shramik Nagar said, "I do not have a BPL ration card. For accessing free-health service at the public hospital, I have to show it. Normally, I spend 15-20% of my earnings every month on medical expenses. If I can save this money, I could use the same on my child's education."
Responding to such grievances, S T Shrike, deputy commissioner, Women and Child Development, said, "The study is an extremely critical step taken by the community. It shows how governance can be improved with people's participation. I expect that this further results into a good community-government partnership effort that improvises scheme provisioning and delivery on the ground."
The study was done in survey number 112B at Vishrantwadi, Shramik Vasahat, Jadhav Nagar, Moze Nagar, Laxmi Nagar-1 (Near to Urdu school), Laxmi Nagar-2 (Raj chowk), Kamraj Nagar at Yerawada.
