Women and Child Development Ministry to be trifurcated

A trifurcation of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is on the anvil. The move, to streamline the Ministry’s schemes, is now under Cabinet consideration, said ministry officials.

The three broad categories under which the Ministry’s schemes have been divided are Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya and Mission Poshan. Schemes aimed at women are clubbed under Mission Shakti and child welfare schemes under Mission Vatsalya. Mission Poshan will look after the nutritional schemes of the ministry.

An official of the Ministry said that while the division has been functioning informally for a while, the ministry has recently sent a proposal before the Cabinet. “We are expecting a nod anytime soon,” said the official.

Sources said that it is unlikely that the division will lead to greater scope. The Ministry of Education, which is bifurcated into two parts, has two secretaries heading it.

The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, the maternity benefits programme Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, gender budgeting and research efforts as well as the Creche scheme will be part of the women empowerment portion of Mission Shakti.

Women protection schemes One Stop Crisis Centre, the women’s helpline, the scheme for rehabilitation of women who have faced violence Swadhar Greh, the scheme for trafficking victims Ujjawala and the Mahila Police Volunteer, were clubbed with another part of Mission Shakti.

The Umbrella ICDS scheme, Anganwadi services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls, and National Creche Scheme will be part of Mission Poshan, and Mission Vatsalya has the revamped Integrated Child Protection Services and Child Welfare Services under it.

The ministry also has a scheme, Poshan Abhiyan, which is a revamped version of the multi-ministerial nutritional schemes, the Integrated Child Development Services. It was renamed PM's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment, or POSHAN, in 2017, and the ICDS is the "delivery platform" of the Abhiyaan, an official said.

The WCD ministry was earlier a department in the erstwhile Human Resource Development ministry (now, the ministry of Education), and was set up in 1986. It became a full-fledged ministry in 2006.

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