Greeting the women of the state on International Women's Day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said his government is committed to women's welfare, safety, security and empowerment.Women need to be empowered and made equal stakeholders so that the dream of a 'New India', espoused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is realised, he said in a statement, adding that many steps have been initiated by both the union government and the state government for this.Referring to the various schemes of the Government of India launched for the betterment of women, he said that under Modi's guidance, the Centre is running the 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' campaign and to financially empower girls, 1.26 crore bank accounts have been opened under the 'Sukanya Samriddhi' scheme.To minimise the problems of cooking, 3.2 crore free gas connections have been distributed under the 'Ujjwala' scheme, he said.Under the 'Pradhanmantri Mitra Vandan' scheme, eligible women are being provided financial assistance of Rs 6,000, the Chief Minister said, adding that 16.42 crore women had opened their accounts under the 'Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna'.
Similarly, under the 'Mudra' scheme, 7.88 crore women have been given loans to realise their dreams and aspirations and in the same way Rs 6,895 crore has been disbursed to women entrepreneurs under the 'Stand Up India' scheme, he said.Talking about the schemes of the state government, he said, '181' Women Helpline and Rescue Van scheme is running in all the districts of the state. For free education till graduation, 'Ahilyabai free education scheme' was being run in the state and for this Rs 21 crore has been earmarked in the state's budget for the current fiscal.He also said that the state government has made many provisions in the state budget for fiscal year 2018-19 and arranged Rs 8,815 crore for various programmes for the Women's and Child Welfare.For nutrition programme under the 'Comprehensive Child Development Schemes' Rs 3,780 crore have been arranged and Rs 524 crore for the 'Shabri Sankalp' scheme, he said.