Working Women Hostel Scheme

Objective:

• This scheme is designed to make hostel facilities available to working women without discrimination. Even the women under job training can also avail of this scheme.
• This scheme will provide safety and accommodation at the workplace to the working women where the daycare facility for their children is also available.
• To increase the services to the women wherever the employment opportunities are available.
• This scheme helps establish the new hostel buildings and expand the existing hostel buildings.

Eligibility Criteria:

• The working women eligible for this scheme are single, divorced, widowed, married but residing away from their husbands and family members.
• Reservation of seats for disabled people is available, and preference is given to underserved community women.
• The women under job training are also eligible for this scheme, but the job training should not exceed one year. These women should be accommodated only 30% of the total capacity of the hostel.
• The women were accommodated under the condition that there was still a vacancy left after the accommodation.
• The children accompanying their mother should be under 18 years if it is a girl child and under five years if it is a boy child. Daycare facilities are also provided at the hostels to the working women if required.

Scheme Highlights:

• Our honourable prime minister Narendra Modi announced this scheme on April 6^th,2017.
• This scheme is a Central Government scheme maintained by the Ministry of Women and Child  Development.
• This scheme targets women under the BPL category and helpless women while employed out of their hometown.
• Under this scheme, the government releases grants to construct hostels to expand and advance the existing hostels for working women in cities, towns and rural areas living away from their families.
• For any further updates or information about the scheme, one can follow the instructions on the website: https://www.wcd.nic.in/.
• This scheme is one of those schemes which is initiated to empower women.

Features of Working Women Hostel Scheme:

• The Central Government established 70,000 Hostels for working women to fulfil the accommodation requirements as promised. The task of construction on 938 is already started to achieve the goal.
• There are a large number of working women who are mothers. These mothers are also facilitated with Daycare centres at the hostels to look after their children when they are at work. This facility is provided at an extra expense.

Beneficiaries:

• All the working women, irrespective of their caste, religion, and marital status, will benefit from this scheme.
• This scheme also benefits those who run agencies/organisations if they wish to set up hostels because agencies/organisations would get financial support for constructing hostels. They can apply for 75% of the construction cost to construct a hostel as financial assistance.
• Women under training for the job will also benefit from this scheme.
• The mother who has children under a specific age limit can reside in this hostel facility.

Rules of Working Women Hostel scheme to be followed:

To avail of the Working Women Hostel scheme, One has to follow these rules:

Income limit

The women who want to get admission to the hostels under this scheme should provide details about their current situation to prove themselves. They have to prove that their gross income is not more than Rs. Fifty thousand if they live in metro cities, and if they live in any other cities, then their gross income should not exceed Rs.35,000 to avail of this hostel facility.

Rent Levied

The women who are availing these hostel facilities should pay rent depending upon the room they use

• Single-Bed room is charged with 15% of the gross income of the individual
• Double-Bed rooms and dormitories are charged with 10% and 7.5% of the individual’s gross income, respectively.
• The individual taking training for the job will be charged the same as a Double Bedroom. However, their rental charges are paid by the institutions trained for the job.
• To avail of Daycare service centres, the mothers are charged with extra 5% apart from their regular rent.

Extra Charges

Extra charges are levied by the hostel authorities from the working women to use the Mess facility and laundry facility.

Staying period

• The maximum period a woman can stay in this hostel is for three years
• Under some applied conditions, a woman can bring a written permission letter from District Women’s Welfare committee to stay some extra time in the hostel, which is not more than six months.
• Though conditions apply, no woman can stay in the hostel for not more than five years.

Grants released under Working Women Hostel Scheme:

The State Government/UTs release the grants in the ratio of 50:40:10 for the construction of hostels to the implementing agencies. A one-time grant will be released to meet the cost of area facilities with the third instalment release. Instalments are released in this manner:

• The first instalment is released when the project is sanctioned.
• The second instalment is released when the first instalment is spent along with the proportionate cost incurred for constructing the hostel building.
• The third instalment is released finally, which is 10% of the total, and along with this, One-time grants are also released once the construction of the hostel building is completed.

All these hostels under this scheme are monitored regularly and reviewed every two years to approve continuing service for the next two years.