Women's fund open to all: Nalinee
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The Women Empowerment Fund is aimed at promoting women's abilities, not creating debt, PM's Office Minister Nalinee Taveesin said yesterday.
Nalinee, who is in charge of the fund, made the comments during Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s weekly programme. She rebutted criticism of the fund – which was set up in part to provide loans to women – saying membership was free and open to all without discrimination.
The PM returned from a trip to Japan on Friday night and yesterday went to visit Kalasin in the afternoon to check on the drought.
Nalinee said a survey found that most women wanted vocational training to help them generate income. The fund would allocate Bt70 million, Bt100 million or Bt130 million to each province depending on its population.
“Membership registration is open to all women [and girls] aged 15 and over. There is no fee. Registration is open at [provincial] Non-formal and Informal Education Offices, village chief offices and the Non-formal and Informal Education Office in Bangkok. Information is available at Hotline 1116. We expect at least 10 million members. We insist that this will not create debts for the people. As for the idea that this [scheme] will benefit some groups of people, there’s no such problem. We invite everyone to register for the Women Empowerment Fund. I insist there is no expense and no quota,” she said.
A panel to oversee the fund would be formed on March 31, but women could still register later.
Village Fund director Natee Klipthong said it would extend help for women from village to tambon level. “The Village Fund scheme was successful to some extent... 90 per cent of the allocated budget for the Village Fund remains. In some places, the Bt100,000 allocated for the circulating fund has been turned into Bt160,000. The concrete evidence is that Village Funds have been able to link with financial institutions. If the funds weren’t good, institutions wouldn’t agree to it.”
