Roop Nagar women hostel remains unused for 14 years

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 19

The tall claims of the state government to empower women have fallen flat as even after 14 years of the completion of the working women hostel at Roop Nagar in Jammu, the building is lying abandoned.

The hostel with a daycare centre for children was constructed in the Lower Roop Nagar area of Jammu city in 2004 under a Centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The state social welfare department, which is responsible for making it operational, had shifted its own office in the building in 2011 and after a few years, it further shifted the office to a rented building at Bahu Plaza.

Many working women from the far-flung areas of the Jammu region are forced to live in rented accommodations in Jammu.

“We are being forced to live in private rented accommodation despite having a huge hostel constructed specially for women by the state,” said a woman employee of the agriculture department, who originally belongs to Doda district.

“A women hostel would have been much secure and economical for us. However, the state government is taking the security of women for granted,” she added.

The multi-storey hostel was completed by the Jammu Development Authority in March 2004 after a delay of about five years. The hostel with a capacity to accommodate 120 women was constructed at a cost of Rs 112 lakh. The Union government paid its share of Rs 53.58 lakh and the rest was funded by the state.

Bharat Bhushan, director, social welfare department, said, “I have joined just a few months ago and have asked my officers to work out a process to make the women hostel operational. I will personally visit the building next week and make it functional at the earliest.

Completed in 2004

• After a delay of about five years, the working women hostel was completed by the Jammu Development Authority in March 2004 
• It was constructed in the Lower Roop Nagar area under a Central scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development
• The multi-storey hostel with a capacity to accommodate 120 women was constructed at a cost of Rs 112 lakh 
• It also comprises a daycare centre for children