Gender as a category needs to be seen within larger social, regional and locational context. Socio-economic inequalities and gender-relation promotes/impedes girls ability to go through schooling. Cultural beliefs & practices and regional characteristics also play an important role.
ISSUES :–
Poverty, social inequalities and gender relations intersect in different ways in different parts of the country
- Rural-urban differences (enrolment, attendance, completion) greater than male-female differences.
- Backward-forward areas (Regional differences) greater than gender and social group differences.
- Disparities between BPL households and well-to-do households are higher than social, gender and regional differences.
- Differences between social groups (tribal communities, specific subgroups among the SC etc).
- Inter-community status (literacy status of some tribes is better than others)
Readiness of families to send their children, especially girls to school
- Schools within access and regular functioning – demand increased.
- Dysfunctional schools & not much teaching happening – demand sharply fell.
- Communities/Families did not have confidence in the school as safe place for their daughters.
- Attitudes and practices of teachers and children from forward social groups affect the readiness of children from socially disadvantaged social groups.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme
- Launched on 2nd October, 1975, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship centrally sponsored schemes of the Government of India.
The beneficiaries under the Scheme are
- children in the age group of 0-6 years
- pregnant women
- lactating mothers
Objectives of the Scheme are:
- to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
- to lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
- to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
- to achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
- to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.
- The ICDS Scheme offers a package of six services, viz.
- Supplementary Nutrition
- Pre-school non-formal education (Children 3-6 years)
- Nutrition & health education (Women 15-45 years)
- Immunization
- Health check-up and
- Referral services
- The last three services are related to health and are provided by Ministry/Department of Health and Family Welfare through NRHM & Public Health Infrastructure.
Sub-schemes under Umbrella Scheme “Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)”
1. Anganwadi Services
- It aims at holistic development of children under the age of six years and its beneficiaries are children of this age group and Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers.
- 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.
2. Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SABLA) or Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG)
- It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme being implemented in 205 districts selected from all the States/UTs.
- The scheme Sabla aims at empowering Adolescent Girls (AGs) (11-18 years) through nutrition, health care and life skills education.
- Scheme Sabla has two major components viz. Nutrition and Non-Nutrition.
- Under the Nutrition component, the out of school AGs in the age group of 11-14 years attending AWCs and all girls in the age group of 14-18 years are provided Supplementary Nutrition for 300 days in a year.
- The non-nutrition component addresses the developmental needs of adolescent girls.
- Under this component out of school adolescent girls of 11-18 years are being provided iron-folic acid supplementation, health check-up & referral services, life skill education, guidance on accessing public services and vocational training (only 16-18 year old adolescent girls).
- It also aims towards mainstreaming out of school AGs into formal/non formal education.
- The Scheme is on Public Financial Management System.
- The releases to the States/UTs are done through the Public Financial Management System platform.
- Further to this, the Scheme is a DBT Scheme.
- As per the DBT guidelines, the benefit is given to the beneficiary after identity of the beneficiary established.
3. Integrated Child Protection Services
- The purpose of the scheme is to provide for children in difficult circumstances as envisaged under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), as well as to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities children have in various situations and actions that lead to abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment and separation of children.
The specific objectives of the scheme are:
- To institutionalize essential services and strengthen structures
- To enhance capacities at all systems and persons involved in service delivery
- To create database and knowledge base for child protection services
- To strengthen child protection at family and community level
- To coordinate and network with government institutions and non-government institutions to ensure effective implementation of the scheme
- To raise public awareness about child rights, child vulnerability and child protection services.
4. National Creche Scheme (NCS)
- It aims at providing a safe place for mothers to leave their children while they are at work, and thus, is a measure for empowering women as it enables them to take up employment.
- At the same time, it is also an intervention towards protection and development of children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years.
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.
- From 2017, the NCS is being implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) where pattern of assistance for all components of the scheme will be in the cost sharing basis of:
- 60:30:10 amongst Centre, State Governments & NGOs running the crèches,
- 80:10:10 amongst the Centre, State Governments & NGOs running the crèches for the 8 North Eastern States and 3 Himalayan States and
- 90:10 between the Central Government and the NGOs running the crèches for the Union Territories.
- Before 2017, the Creche Scheme was being run as a Central Sector Scheme and was implemented through Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) and Indian Council of Child Welfare (ICCW) with the fund sharing pattern of 90:10.
II. National Nutrition Mission (Poshan Abhiyaan)
- Poshan Abhiyaan, the world’s largest nutrition programme, expected to benefit 10 crore people, was launched in 2018 and aims at improving the nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers.
- There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 years age) and pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- Inspite of these, level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high.
- There is no dearth of schemes but lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve common goal.
- NNM through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.
- NNM targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.
- Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., the Mission would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (Mission 25 by 2022).
- A low weight-for-height is called wasting and a low height-for-age is called stunting.
- The Mission is being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- UNICEF provides technical support to MWCD for POSHAN Abhiyaan under Country Programme 2018-2022.
III. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
- Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), 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 installments 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 so that on an average, a woman gets Rs.6,000/-.
IV. Schemes of Ministry of Women and Child Development under Nirbhaya Fund
One Stop Centre Scheme
- Popularly known as Sakhi Centres, the One Stop Centre Scheme is being implemented across the country since April 2015.
- These Centres are being established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance (First aid, Medical aid, Police assistance, Legal aid and counselling support) under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces, within the family, community and at the workplace, in phased manner.
- Women, including girls below 18 years of age, facing physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and economic abuse, irrespective of age, class, caste, education status, marital status, race and culture will be facilitated with support and redressal.
- It is a centrally sponsored (Central Government will provide 100% financial assistance) sub – scheme of the Umbrella Scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of women.
- State Government/ UT Administration is the implementing Agency.
Universalisation of Women Helpline Scheme
- The Department of Telecommunication has allocated the number 181 linked with One Stop Centres for women in distress to all States/UTs for 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 Volunteers (MPVs)
- 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.
- 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.
- In the pilot phase, two districts from every State and one district from every UT were chosen for the implementation of the scheme.
- Haryana has become the first state to start the Mahila Police Volunteer scheme.
Sakhi Dashboard
- It is 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 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.
V. 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.
- It focuses 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.
VI. 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 w.e.f. 01.01.2016 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% with effect from 1.01.2016.
VII. 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 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme w.e.f. 2016 with the funds released to the State Governments/ UT Administrations 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.
VIII. 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 was converted from Central Sector Scheme to Centrally Sponsored Scheme w.e.f. 22.11.2017.
- After conversion to Centrally Sponsored Scheme, funds are released through State/UTs Govt. which improves the level of monitoring and implementation under the Scheme.
IX. 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).