Why Did Maharashtra Govt Suspend Women Empowerment Scheme Immediately?

Within 24 hours after its announcement, the Maharashtra government suspended the "NaMo" women's empowerment scheme.

The Chief Minister's Women's Empowerment Campaign was to undergo specific revisions, and a corrigendum was to be released, but both the Chief Minister and the Child Development Minister were busy with Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations and other events, hence, the decision was reversed straight from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

On September 21, a new notification was issued stating that the directive from the day before was postponed until further orders.

It was originally planned for the state to undertake the "Mukhyamantri Mahila Sashaktikaran Abhiyan" program between October 2, 2023, and October 1, 2024. The woman and child development minister was appointed as the program's controller in the order issued on September 20. The Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister were to receive monthly updates. The department secretary was to be the pivotal officer, and a special officer was to be chosen at the state level. The program would also be led by the Pune-based commissioner for women and child development.

According to the directive, the initiative served as a single platform for the implementation of all state and federal government programs and policies pertaining to women's socioeconomic development.

Aditi Tatkare, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party who joined the Eknath Shinde-led administration on July 2, is in charge of the Ministry for Women & Child Development.

Representatives from all government departments came together to offer the benefits of the schemes to the beneficiaries, in all the districts of the state, with the goal of organizing, training, and empowering women, as well as implementing government programs relating to women in a people-oriented manner. Under the direction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, this campaign was to be successfully carried out, but the whole initiative is on hold for now.

The goals of this campaign are to inform women's self-help groups in every district of the state about the state government's various programs, compile a list of women who will benefit from these programs after determining their eligibility, collect applications from those who qualify, and connecting at least 2.5 lakh women in each district to these programs. At the taluka level, 30,000 women and 200 women from each village were to participate in the campaign.

Notably, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde mentioned the scheme when he spoke with reporters late Thursday night, September 21, after the Rajya Sabha passed the women's reservation bill to reserve one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women. This was despite the most recent notification to delay the implementation.

The Chief Minister’s Office wrote on X, “The 'Narishakti Vandan' bill giving reservation to women was unanimously passed in the Rajya Sabha, this is a moment of glory for women and it will be written in golden letters in the history of the country, the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde welcomed this bill and congratulated the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

महिलांना आरक्षण देणारे 'नारीशक्ती वंदन' विधेयक राज्यसभेत सर्वसंमतीने मंजूर झाले, हा महिलांसाठी गौरवाचा क्षण असून तो देशाच्या इतिहासात सुवर्णाक्षराने लिहिला जाणार आहे, अशा शब्दात मुख्यमंत्री @mieknathshinde यांनी या विधेयकाचे स्वागत केले आणि प्रधानमंत्री @narendramodi यांचे… pic.twitter.com/vklLPFNG2o

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) September 21, 2023

Shinde stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as the inspiration for his government's decision to launch the "NaMo women empowerment scheme" in order to guarantee that women benefit from all government initiatives.