14. National Family Benefit Scheme (N.F.B.S.):

    Under this Scheme, financial assistance is provided to a BPL family on the death of the primary breadwinner of the bereaved family in the age group of 18-64 Yrs. A one time lump sum family benefit of Rs. 10,000/- is being provided to the eligible households in such an event. The family benefit is paid to such surviving member of the "household" of the deceased who, after local enquiry, is determined to be the head of the household. The household includes spouse, minor children, unmarried daughters and dependant parents. Incase of death of an unmarried adult, the term "household" would include minor brothers/ sisters.

15. Jana Seva Divas:

    One of the striking features of the pensions scheme is that pensions are being disbursed on a single day of each month i.e. 15th of every month which is observed as "JANA SEVA DIVAS". This arrangement has been introduced in the year 2003. The payment is made with a single note of Rs.100/-denomination. In rural areas, the pensions are disbursed at the Gram Panchayat, while in the urban area disbursement is made at the Municipality/ N.A.C. office or a nearby school of the respective ward. To ensure transparency in the system, Identity Cards (with Pass Book) have been provided to the beneficiaries and entries are being made each month in the Pass Book upon disbursement of the pension.

16. Programme for Women :

 Mission Shakti :

    One of the key development initiatives identified by the Government of Odisha is empowerment of women. It is well-known that social empowerment of women will come from their economic empowerment and therefore helping to achieve economic independence by enabling them to have independent employment and income is being accorded the highest priority. It has also been recognized that women will be better-placed to overcome the negative social pressures and gender biases operating against them and to unshackle themselves through group identity and activity. Promotion of Women's Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) has therefore been adopted as a key strategy for achieving Women's empowerment. A Mission approach has been adopted to facilitate this and a Mission for women's empowerment through the promotion of Women's Self-Help Groups called "Mission Shakti" has been launched in March-2001. The Mission has an objective of helping formation of 3,00,000 Women's Self-Help Groups by 2008. 36,000 WSHGs were already existing and were active in the State prior to the launching of "Mission Shakti". Another more important objective of the Mission is to help capacity-building of the existing and the new Groups to be formed to take up income-generating and remunerative economic activities by providing them the necessary technical support, market linkages and credit linkages, where necessary.

17. Mission khyamata :

    The programme Mission Khyamata came into force during the year 2004-05 as a sub-component of Mission-Shakti. The Hon'ble Chief Minister made an announcement to this effect on dt.03.12.04, the International Day for Persons with Disabilities. It runs on the same lines as Mission-Shakti and covers persons with disability as members of Self -Help Group.

    As the SGSY guidelines permit a smaller group (5-6) of members in a SHG of disabled persons, as against the norm of 12 to 15 persons or more for persons without disability. These groups can at best have one or two persons without   disability   as   additional   members,   but   these   persons   can   not  be President / Secretary or Treasurer of the SHG. Parents of persons with disability of the following type can also form a SHG under Mission Khyamata :

i. Mental Retardation
ii. Mental illness
iii. Cerebral palsy
iv. Autism

18. Programme for the Physically Challenged Persons:
Scheme for Physically Challenged Children:

    This is a State Government Scheme which is aimed at providing free education to Visually impaired, Hearing impaired and Mentally Challenged Children in Special Schools having Specially trained teachers. The Special Schools are run by NGOs/ V.Os with Grant-in-aid from W 8s CD. Department , Odisha, Bhubaneswar @ Rs.750/- per beneficiary per month.