The details regarding major welfare schemes being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development along with the State-wise details of the beneficiaries of these schemes are given as below:

    1. Anganwadi Services: Anganwadi Services under Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme, aiming at holistic development of children below 6 years of age and pregnant women & lactating mothers, by providing a package of six services comprising (i) Supplementary nutrition; (ii) Pre-school non-formal education; (iii) Nutrition and health Education; (iv) Immunization; (v) Health check-up; and (vi) 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.

    2. POSHAN Abhiyaan: POSHAN Abhiyaan launched in March, 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.

    3. 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/-. It is estimated that 51.70 lakhs beneficiaries per annum are covered under PMMVY throughout the Nation. 

PMMVY has been implemented from 1st Jan 2017 and no change in the design and mechanism of the Scheme implementation has been undertaken, so far.

    4. Scheme for Adolescent Girls: Under this scheme, 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.  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.

    5. Child Protection Scheme: 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). 

The financial norms under CPS were revised with effect from 1st April, 2014. 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. The monitoring mechanism is prescribed under Section 54 of the JJ Act and Rule 41 of the JJ Model Rules, 2016.

    6. National Creche Scheme: National Crèche Scheme, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, is implemented through the State Governments/UT Administrations with effect from 1st Jan 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

The NCS is being implemented with effect from 01.01.2017 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 01.01.2017, 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.

As far as quality of implementation or prevention of corruption is concerned, the impact is positive after the Scheme became a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

    7. Schemes Implemented under Nirbhaya Fund: The Ministry is implementing 3 schemes under Nirbhaya Fund. These are:

        a. One Stop Centre: 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. OSCs are to be set up either in new constructed building in an approved design or an existing building within 2 kms radius of a medical facility. 

        b. Women Helpline: The Universalization 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.

Women Helpline is operational in 32 States/UTs. Over 51 lakh women have been provided assistance by 181 Women Helpline (5177303 registered calls as on 31.03.2020). 

        c. 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. So far, States have informed about identifying about 9531 MPVs. 

        ◦ 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 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. As such, the dashboard is designed to better standardize and functionally integrate OSCs, WHLs and MPVs into The Sakhi Vertical, a service for safety and empowerment of women offered by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India. 

        ◦ The Sakhi dashboard is a dynamic and effective management and MIS tool for government officers and functionaries of OSCs, WHLs and MPVs.

    8. 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.

At the inception of the scheme, funds were released directly to the Districts through the State Governemnt. However, from 2016-17 onwards, funds are directly transferred into designated BBBP account in the District.

The above mentioned changes have resulted in smooth and effective implementation and timely submission of physical and financial reports under BBBP.

    9. 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. 

Prior to 31st Dec 2015, the Swadhar Greh scheme was a Central Sector Scheme with the funding share of 100% between the Central Government and the implementing agencies on State Govt.’s recommendations. 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.

After the reform the State Governments are included more actively in the implementation, opening of new Homes, and monitoring of the Scheme at State and District levels.

    10. 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. 

Prior to 1st April 2016, the scheme Ujjawala was a Central Sector Scheme with the funding share of 90:10 between the Central Government and the implementing agencies on State Govt.’s recommendations. The Scheme has been revised as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme w.e.f. 01.04.2016  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.

After the reform the State Governments are included more actively in the implementation, opening of new Homes, and monitoring of the Scheme at State and District levels.

    11. 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. The Scheme was converted from Central Sector Scheme to Centrally Sponsored Scheme w.e.f.  22.11.2017.

    12. 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).

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)