Parliament Question: Nai Roshni Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINORITY AFFAIRS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-1762 ANSWERED ON 29.07.2026 NAI ROSHNI SCHEME 1762. SHRI RAJESH NARANBHAI CHUDASAMA Will the Minister of MINORITY AFFAIRS be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government’s Nai Roshni Scheme (NRS) has played a significant role in empowering minority women across the country through leadership training and social awareness programmes and if so, the details thereof; (b) the total number of women trained under this scheme nationwide since its inception and the share of beneficiaries belonging to Gujarat; (c) the number of districts in Gujarat currently covered under this scheme and whether there are any plans to expand the programme to uncovered or aspirational districts and if so, the details thereof; and (d) the extent of convergence of the NRS with other schemes of women’s empowerment, digital literacy and livelihood generation in the State? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF MINORITY AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU) (a) to (d): Nai Roshni scheme aimed to empower and enhance confidence amongst minority women by generating awareness about women rights and interventions for ‘Leadership Development’. The training module covered areas related to Programmes for Women such as Health and Hygiene, Legal Rights of Women, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, Swachch Bharat, Life Skills, and Advocacy for Social and Behavioral changes. Under Nai Roshni scheme, which was launched in 2012-13, since inception about 4.35 lakh minority women were trained from all over India including 3900 from Gujarat, district-wise data of such beneficiaries is not maintained under the scheme. The Nai Roshni scheme has been subsumed under an integrated scheme Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) which converges five erstwhile skilling and empowerment schemes of the Ministry and inter alia lays emphasis on community-level aspirations and challenges, mainstreaming them and improving the socio- economic conditions through exposure to relevant modern skills. The Leadership and Entrepreneurship sub-component of the PM VIKAS scheme focuses on imparting skill training to minority women for providing them sustainable economic livelihood opportunities and setting up enterprises/ self-employment ventures through inter-alia establishing linkages with financial institutions such as NMDFC, Banks, NBFCs. *****