Salaries of 36 Sakhi Centre employees delayed by 7 months in Telangana

The Sakhi OSC offer a wide range of services to women including medical aid, psycho-social counseling, legal counseling, facilitation of police support, besides offering temporary shelter to women affected by violence in an integrated manner under one roof.

Mancherial: Salaries of employees working with 36 Sakhi-One Stop Centres (OSC) across the State have been delayed for not just one or two, but seven months, causing inconvenience to staffers.

The Sakhi OSC offer a wide range of services to women including medical aid, psycho-social counseling, legal counseling, facilitation of police support, besides offering temporary shelter to women affected by violence in an integrated manner under one roof. They are operated in 33 district headquarters with three centres in Hyderabad by voluntary organizations under the aegis of the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare.

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Each Sakhi OSC is staffed with 12 personnel including a centre administrator, a psycho social councilor, legal councilor, two case workers, an IT Assistant, three security guards, three multi-task attendants. While a centre administrator is paid Rs 35,000 per month, multi-task attendants get monthly salary of Rs 12,500. The staffers have been waiting to receive the salaries since December.

“Due to the much delay in giving salaries, some staffers are forced to borrow money from Non-Government Organisations that run the centres. Other staffers are taking loans from private banks shelling out huge rates of interest. One can manage without salary for a month or two, but not for seven months at a stretch,” an employee of the centre regretted.

Sources said that funds relating to the salaries were not sanctioned from Centre, delaying the salaries of the staffers. Sakhi OSCs is a sub-scheme of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women which also includes the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahayog Yojana. The scheme is funded by the Nirbhaya fund of Rs 1,000 crore set up by the Centre for women safety, protection and a 24-hour helpline

When asked, Joint Director of Women Development and Child Welfare (Schemes) Laxmi said the salaries would be credited with bank accounts of District Welfare Officer soon. The finance department would release funds with regard to the salaries in a day or two. She stated that efforts were being made to ensure salaries of the staffers were paid without delay in future.