The Mission Shakti Programme in Uttar Pradesh will soon be stepping into a new league with the onset of Phase 4 in June 2022. This phase will deal with the aspect of strengthening women's security, improving their lifestyles and making them self-reliant with the help of awareness programmes.

The Uttar Pradesh administration has successfully completed 3 graded runs of the Mission Shakti Programme, working towards the goal of women and child empowerment & protection. The new phase will include developments aimed at covering aspects of holistic women's welfare. Additionally, it will also augment the existing provisions adopted in the previous three phases.

Under the new Phase 4, the government will emphasise on the protection of women's rights at work. In an attempt to do so, District Administration will run campaigns aimed at making women aware of the acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and the legal provisions available for them too.

In addition to that, the women helpline numbers would also be publicised in all educational institutes. As per the reports, this phase will also encapsulate the education of girl child as well as the well-being of women in workplaces.

With an aim to offer a secure and pleasant working environment, Phase 4 mandates to form a Protection of Sexual Harassment at Workplace committee. Under this, the administration will also run random checks to validate the formation of such committee at workplace.

As per the officials, social media and other platforms will be used to raise awareness of state initiatives and welfare programmes. A digital portal will also be set up with detailed information about all women-related schemes to the advantage of the beneficiaries.

While education is a basic right, for some girls it becomes a far fetched dream due to several factors like- poverty, gender inequality, etc. This is where Mission Shakti comes to the rescue, making basic education accessible for the girls everywhere.

As per the state administration, higher number of school dropouts is also a major reason for the imbalance in education. To tackle this, a special campaign will be launched for girls under the School Chalo Abhiyan. Under this, a list of dropouts will be created. These children will be contacted by by the officials, who will assist them in completing their education further.

Mission Shakti 4.0 will also focus on co-curricular activities amongst women. For this, events such as art competitions, creative writing and others will be conducted in schools.

The school will also be tasked to introduce female-icons to young children. Under the Phase 4 of the initiative, educational institutes will be asked to invite women achievers to address students and inspire them with their success stories.

Other basic amenities, such as separate toilets for women have also been made mandatory in all schools and colleges, to ensure proper hygiene.

- with inputs from IANS