Women and Child Development in India

The ministry of women and child development has decided to integrate all of its major programmes under three umbrella schemes namely Mission Shakti, Mission POSHAN 2.0 and mission Vatsalya.

• Under this integration the scheme aims to secure healthy and happy childhood for every child, providing nutrition for holistic development of children and empowerment of women in India.
• This step has been taken to ensure the effective implementation of various programmes and schemes of the Ministry of women and child development.

• Beti bachao beti padhao: the objectives of this initiative are:
• Prevention of gender biased sex selective elimination.
• Ensuring survival & protection of the girl child.
• Ensuring education and participation of the girl child.

Targets-

• Primary – the Young and newly married couples; Pregnant and Lactating mothers; parents
• Secondary- the Youth, adolescents (girls and boys), in-laws, medical doctors/ practitioners, private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres
• Tertiary -Officials, PRIs; frontline workers, women SHGs/Collectives, religious leaders, voluntary organizations, media, medical associations, industry associations, general public as a whole.
• UJJAWALA: A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

Objectives of the scheme-

• To protect women from trafficking, protection from sexual abuse and generation of development programmes.
• To facilitate rescue of victims from the place of their exploitation and place them in safe custody.
• To provide rehabilitation services both immediate and long-term to the victims by providing basic amenities/needs such as shelter, food, clothing, medical treatment including counselling, legal aid and guidance and vocational training.
• To facilitate reintegration of the victims into the family and society at large
• To facilitate repatriation of cross-border victims to their country of origin.

Target beneficiaries-

• Women and children who are vulnerable to trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Women and children who are victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.

This scheme will provide prevention, rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration to the beneficiaries.

• Integrated child development scheme (ICDS): objectives of the scheme are:-
  • improve the nutritional and Health status of pre-school children in the age- group of 0-6 years;
  • To lay the foundation of proper psychological development of the child;
    To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school drop-out;
  • To achieve effective coordination 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.

       Some of the services of the scheme includes:

• • Supplementary Nutrition.
  • Health Check-up.
  • Immunization
  • Referral Services
  • Early Childhood Care and Pre-school Education.
  • Nutrition and Health Education.
• POSHAN ABHIYAAN: The focus of Abhiyaan is to lay emphasis on nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children from 0-6 years of age.
• The programme, through use of technology, convergence and community involvement with a targeted approach strives to reduce the level of stunning, under-nutrition, Anemia and low birth weight in children, as also focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, thus holistically addressing malnutrition.
• Some of the components of the scheme are:-
  To Converge, Behavioural change, to incentivize and provide training and capacity building.
  Events under scheme:-

• Poshan phagwada-During the planning phase of the poshan Pakhwada, a video conference was addressed by Hon’ble Chief Minister and Chief Secretary, Haryana on 29- 2- 2020 with all the Deputy Commissioners in the State in order to make Poshan Pakhwada a successful event. Directions were issued to all concerned Deputy Commissioners to focus all the activities undertaken during the Poshan Pakhwada on Anaemia and malnutrition.
• Poshan Pakhwada- Poshan ke 5 sutrae first golden 1000 days, nutrient rich foods, Anaemia prevention, Diarrhea management, hygiene and sanitation, Dialogue cards, Flip book, two recipe books.

• For women- These schemes for women empowerment and development can provide different living opportunities for women in sectors such as health, generating employment and security for them.
  • Employment opportunity- schemes such as UJJawala can bring an attitudinal change in the society regading women and bring more Safe and secure work environment for them.
  • Health – schemes for maternity benefit and providing nutrition to mothers will reduce the maternal mortality rate in India.
    • Highest in Assam – death of mothers after giving birth to child or while giving birth.
  • Reduce Crime- the schemes will include provision for Crime related to women such as Rape, sexual Assault, acid attacks etc.
• For children- Integration of schemes will help to provide adequate nutrition to children in age wise format and educational institutions were also merged in the scheme to make it effective.
  • Age wise nutrition strategy- POSHAN Abhiyaan and POSHAN 2.0 will include age wise strategy for children to provide them proper food and nutrition to fight malnourishment in India especially among children aged below 5.
  • Reduce economic burden- merger of schemes will reduce the burden of providing funds individually to every scheme and hence proper sources will be available to the institutions.
  • Reduce crime against children- the crime against children such as sexual abuse and trafficking can be taken care of under the schemes.

The Integration of schemes will bring a social change for women and children which are vulnerable groups of the country and needs plan which will benefit them in real terms for holistic development of the society at large.