Project to train war-affected widows in self-employment:

Indian Govt approves Rs. 200m grant

The Indian Government has given a Rs. 200 million grant to train the war affected widows with some self employment courses, so that the widows might be able to start afresh their livelihood.

Muhammad Hizbullah - Deputy Minister of Child Development & Women's Affairs said that yesterday the Indian Parliamentary delegation led by Mrs. Sushma Swarajh opened the training centre at Valaichchenai meant to give training to war affected young widows.

He said that the Ministry has organized already two training centers in the Batticaloa district - one in Kalladi and another in the Valaichchenai - which was declared open on Friday.

The Deputy Minister said that his Ministry has selected nearly 800 young war affected widows from the Batticaloa district, for the six months training program. He said young widows means that those who are 40 years and below. Those selected young widows are mainly from Kiran, Vakarai and Valaichchenai.

The Deputy Minister said that in Batticaloa alone there are about 20,000 general widows.

This estimate includes those affected by tsunami, natural disaster, and cyclone and also includes the war affected widows. He pointed out minimum fifty percent of them are war affected widows. Hizbullah said the six-month livelihood program includes training them on fruit processing, garment trade, making imitation items, computer software, and raring poultry and livestock.

"We have planned to train them for six months and after the training we plan to give them the necessary support", Deputy Minister said.

According to Child Development and Women's Affairs Ministry it was estimated that the government has identified over 59,000 war widows in the Northern and Eastern Provinces following the end of the war.

The Deputy Minister said that a clear picture might emerge only after the census report is released.

He also said that still "we are looking for some donors for the Northern Province to launch a livelihood program for the war affected widows". - Asian Tribune