Context: Recently, Union Minister of Women and Child Development in a written reply to Lok Sabha given details regarding major welfare schemes being implemented by the concerned Ministry of Women and Child Development.
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.

Child Protection Scheme (CPS)

• Child Protection Services (CPS) scheme supports the children in difficult circumstances, as envisaged under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act).
• Some of the key features of the revised Scheme are increased maintenance grant for children in homes, enhanced cost of construction and flexibility in the staffing pattern in service delivery structures, depending on the size and need of the State/UT.
• Further, sub-scheme Child Protection Services came under Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in the year of 2017.

National Creche Scheme

• National Crèche Scheme, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, is implemented through the State Governments/UT Administrations since 2017 to provide day care facilities to children (age group of 6 months- 6 years) of working mothers.

The Scheme provides an integrated package of the following services:

• Daycare Facilities including Sleeping Facilities.
• Early Stimulation for children below 3 years and Pre-school Education for 3 to 6 years old children.
• Supplementary Nutrition (to be locally sourced)
• Growth Monitoring.
• Health Check-up and Immunization.

Benefits of Creche Facility

• It helps women to manage both their career as well as their family responsibility.
• It promotes gender diversity at workplaces.
• Creche facilities help promote gender equality and democracy by increasing participation of women in the economy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mahila Shakti Kendra

• Under Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme, community engagement through student volunteers is envisioned in 115 most backward/aspirational districts as part of MSK block level initiatives.
• Student volunteers play an instrumental role in awareness generation regarding various important government schemes/programmes as well as social issues that have an impact on lives of women in a given block (or equivalent administrative unit, when such blocks are not in place).