Government Schemes

Health

• Schemes like PM Matru Vandana Yojana give financial protection to women during their pregnancy and lactation period.
• A very significant move has been the modification of the Maternity Benefit Act allowing working women 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.
• Programmes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana take care of the girl child right from protecting her from female foeticide to ensuring her education and financial security.
• The Ayushman Bharat Programme, National Nutrition Mission, Ujjawala Yojana etc, take care of the health and nutritional requirements of Indian Women.

National Nutrition Mission (NNM)

• The aim of the mission is to achieve an improvement in the nutritional status of children of 0-6 years and pregnant and lactating women in a time bound manner, with defined targets.

Anganwadi Services

Anganwadi Services under Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), aiming at holistic development of children below 6 years of age and pregnant women & lactating mothers, by providing a package of six services comprising:

• Supplementary nutrition
• Pre-school non-formal education
• Nutrition and health Education
• Immunization
• Health check-up
• Referral services through Anganwadi Centres at grassroots level.

Three of the six services viz., immunization, health check-up and referral services are related to health and are provided by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through NRHM & Public Health Infrastructure.

• As Anganwadi Services is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, the overall management and monitoring regarding implementation of the ICDS Scheme are being done by the concerned State Government/UT Administration.
• Anganwadi is a type of rural child care centre in India which helps poor children to eat food stomach full.
• They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program to combat child hunger and malnutrition.

POSHAN Abhiyaan

• POSHAN Abhiyaan launched in 2018 aims at improving the nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan focuses on convergence among partner Ministries leveraging technology and Jan Andolan among other things, to address issue of malnutrition comprehensively.
• Near-real time reporting by field functionaries and improved MIS is aimed at smooth implementation of scheme and better service delivery.
• It also targets stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and low birth rate.
• It will monitor and review implementation of all such schemes and utilize existing structural arrangements of line ministries wherever available.
• Its large component involves gradual scaling-up of interventions supported by on-going World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country by 2022.
• Its vision is to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022.

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is a Centrally Sponsored Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.
• The maternity benefit under PMMVY is available to the eligible beneficiaries for first living child of family.
• Under the scheme, Rs. 5,000/- is provided to the eligible beneficiary in three instalments during pregnancy and lactation in response to individual fulfilling certain nutrition and health seeking conditions.
• The eligible beneficiary also receives the remaining cash incentive as per approved norms towards maternity benefit under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) after institutional delivery.

Scheme for Adolescent Girls

• Under the Scheme for Adolescent Girls, out of school Adolescent girls in the age group of 11-14 years are provided supplementary nutrition of 600 calories, 18-20 grams of protein and micronutrients for 300 days in a year.
• The Scheme is on Public Financial Management System, further to this, the Scheme is a DBT Scheme.
• The releases to the States/UTs are done through the Public Financial Management System platform.
• As per the DBT guidelines, the benefit is given to the beneficiary after identity of the beneficiary established.

Women safety

Schemes Implemented under Nirbhaya Fund:-

• The Ministry is implementing 3 schemes under Nirbhaya Fund. These are: (i) One Stop Centre, (ii) Women Helpline, and (iii) Mahila Police Volunteer.

One Stop Centre (OSC)

• The objective of the OSC Scheme is to facilitate women affected by violence with a range of integrated services under one roof such as Police facilitation, medical aid, psychological counselling, legal counselling, temporary shelter etc

Women Helpline

• The Universalisation of Women Helpline (WHL) aims at providing immediate and 24-hour emergency and non-emergency response to women affected by violence across the country by referral service.
• Under the WHL Scheme, a toll-free 24-hours telecom service through short code 181 is provided to women seeking support and information about Govt. Schemes and programmes.
• The WHL Scheme is funded under Nirbhaya Fund with 100% funds being disbursed to District Collectors.

Mahila Police Volunteer

• The Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) act as a link between police and the community and facilitate help to women in distress.
• MPVs serve as a public-police interface in order to fight crime against women and reports incidences of violence against women such as domestic violence, child marriage, dowry harassment and violence faced by women in public spaces.
• In the pilot phase, two districts from every State and one district from every UT were chosen for the implementation of the scheme.
• The mandate of Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) is to report to authorities/police the incidence of violence against women such as domestic violence, child marriage, dowry harassment and violence faced by women in public spaces.

Sakhi Dashboard

• Sakhi Dashboard an online platform has been introduced in the Ministry for the functionaries of One Stop Centres (OSCs) and Women Help Lines (WHLs), Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) to populate and view various important information about the cases of violence affected women coming to them, as well as about their establishments.
• The dashboard has been rolled out and can be accessed by these functionaries, as well as by the related government officials with the help of the usernames and passwords assigned to them.
• The dashboard provides a simplified and standardized common format for cases of violence affected women coming to OSCs, WHLs and MPVs, which goes on to detail the support and referral services provided to them.

Swadhar Greh

• The Swadhar Greh Scheme targets women victims of unfortunate circumstances, who are in need of institutional support for rehabilitation so that they could lead their life with dignity.
• The Scheme envisages providing shelter, food, clothing and health as well as economic and social security for the women victims of difficult circumstances which includes widows, destitute women and aged women.
• The Swadhar Greh Scheme has been revised since 2016 as a sub-scheme of the Centrally Sponsored Umbrella Scheme “Protection and Empowerment of Women” funds are released through the States, with cost sharing ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and the States excepting for the North Eastern and Himalayan States where it shall be 90:10 and for UTs it is 100%.

Ujjawala

• Ujjawala is a comprehensive scheme for prevention of trafficking, with five specific components – Prevention, Rescue, Rehabilitation, Re-Integration and Repatriation of victims of trafficking.
• The scheme has been conceived primarily for the purpose of preventing trafficking on the one hand and rescue and rehabilitation of victims on the other.
• The Scheme has been revised since 2016 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with funding ratio as 60:30:10 between Centre, States and implementation agency except North-Eastern States and Himalayan States where it shall be 80:10:10. In Union Territories the ratio between the centre and implementing agency is 90:10.

Education

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme aims to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in the age of 0-6 years.
• It is a tri-ministerial, convergent effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development with focus on Awareness and Advocacy Campaign; Multi-sectoral intervention; Effective enforcement of Pre-Conception and Pre Natal-Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act and Enabling girl child’s education.
• Scheme doesn’t have any provision for direct benefit transfer; therefore, there are NO direct beneficiaries under the Scheme.

Economic

Rastriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

• Rastriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), extends micro-credit to women in the informal sector through a client friendly, and in a hassle-free manner without collateral for income generation activities.
• Education of credit management has been integrated with the provision of credit, along with literary and skill training for individual women and leadership training among groups for self-management.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

• Under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, government has provided credit to small entrepreneurs without the need for collateral or a guarantor.
• PM Jan Dhan Yojana gas played a critical role in the financial inclusion of women.
• Skill development is another key aspect for raising the potential of our female workforce. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana a large number of Indian youth have taken up industry relevant skill training.

P.M. Ujjwala Yojana

• It is a scheme to aid poor sections of Indian society.
• The intent of this scheme is to make cooking gas (LPG) available to women from families that are financially backward.
• The main objectives of P. M Ujjwala Yojana are:

1. To enhance the status of women and caring for their health
2. To help decrease air pollution due to use of fossil fuel
3. Lessening the serious health risks related with cooking based on fossil fuels.
4. Reducing the number of deaths due to unclean cooking fuels which is almost 5 lakh every year in India
5. Preventing young children from acute respiratory illness caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the fossil fuels.

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM):

• Ajeevika is a major project which focuses on rural women and aims to achieve universal social mobilization by involving rural women.
• There are two other important components of Ajeevika, relevant for improvement of livelihoods of rural women.
  • Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) aims to skill rural youth who are poor and provide them with jobs having regular monthly wages or above the minimum wages.
  • Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) is another component that aims to improve the present status of women in agriculture and to enhance the opportunities for empowerment.

Working Women Hostel

• Working Women’s Hostel scheme is to promote availability of safe and conveniently located accommodation for working women, with day care facility for their children, wherever possible, in urban, semi urban, and even rural areas where employment opportunity for women exist.
• The scheme is assisting projects for construction of new hostel buildings, expansion of existing hostel buildings and also for running hostel buildings in rented premises.

Political

Empowering Elected Women Representatives (EWRs)

• An extensive training programme has been launched with an objective of empowering Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) and to help them assume the leadership roles expected of them and guide their villages for a more prosperous future.

Classification From the Website of Ministry of Women and Child Development

Women Empowerment Schemes

1. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme
2. One Stop Centre Scheme
3. Women Helpline Scheme
4. UJJAWALA : A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
5. Working Women Hostel
6. Ministry approves new projects under Ujjawala Scheme and continues existing projects
7. SWADHAR Greh (A Scheme for Women in Difficult Circumstances)
8. Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP)
9. NARI SHAKTI PURASKAR
10. Awardees of Stree Shakti Puruskar, 2014 & Awardees of Nari Shakti Puruskar
11. Awardees of Rajya Mahila Samman & Zila Mahila Samman
12. NIRBHAYA
13. Mahila police Volunteers
14. Mahila Shakti Kendras (MSK)

Umbrella ICDS

1. Anganwadi Services Scheme
2. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
3. National Creche Scheme
4. POSHAN Abhiyaan
5. Scheme for Adolescent Girls
6. Child Protection Scheme