The Ministry has been administering 'Support to Training and Employment Program for Women (STEP) Scheme' since 1986-87 as a 'Central Sector Scheme'. The STEP Scheme aims to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs.

The STEP program aims to increase the self-reliance and autonomy of women by enhancing their productivity and enabling them to take up income generation activities. It provides training for skill upgradation to poor and asset less women in the traditional sector viz. agriculture, animal husbandry, dairying, fisheries, handlooms, handicrafts, khadi and village industries sericulture, social forestry and wasteland development.

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