During the year 2017, the Ministry of Women and Child Development made tremendous strides with approval and launch of several of its big initiatives like National Nutrition Mission , pan-India expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, launch of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana,  Universal Scheme for Adolescent Girls, launch of Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme and a large number of measures for promotion of safety of women and children as well as leveraging ICT to ensure transparency, quick delivery of services as well as preventing leakages, among others.

1. NATIONAL NUTRITION MISSION (NNM):

Although malnutrition indices have shown a decline as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) – 4 in 2015-16 over NFHS (3) in 2005-06, the overall malnutrition scenario still continues to look bleak across the country. In NFHS(4), 35.7% children under 5 years of age are underweight and 38.4% are stunted indicating a reduction from the previous NFHS – 3 which reported 42.5% children under 5 years of age as underweight and 48% stunted. Further, 22.9% women (15-49 years of age) have chronic energy deficiency (BMI less than 18.5) which is a decline from the previous NFHS-3 levels which reported 35.5% women having chronic energy deficiency.

 

To deal with this problem of malnutrition on a war footing, the Government of India has approved setting-up of the National Nutrition Mission on 30.11.2017 with a three year budget of Rs. 9046.17 Crores commencing from 2017-18. It ensures convergence with various programmes i.e Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, Scheme for Adolescent Girls of WCD Ministry; Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM) of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Swachh Bharat Mission of Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DW&S); Public Distribution System (PDS) of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (CAF&PD); Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) of Ministry of Rural Development (M/o RD); Drinking Water & Toilets with Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies through Ministry of Urban Development.

The Goals of NNM are to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during the next three years beginning 2017-18 with fixed targets as under:

 

S.No	Objective	Target
1.	Prevent and reduce stunting in children (0-6 years)	By 6% @ 2% p.a
2.	Prevent and reduce under nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years)	By 6% @ 2% p.a
3.	Reduce the prevalence of anemia among young Children (6-59 months)	By 9% @ 3% p.a
4.	Reduce the prevalence of anemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of 15-49 years	By 9% @ 3% p.a
5.	Reduce Low Birth Weight (LBW)	By 6% @ 2% p.a

 

One of the key activities in project is Information and Communication Technology enabled Real Time Monitoring (ICT-RTM) of ICDS. Accordingly, a customized mobile based Common Application software (ICDS-CAS) has been developed. Anganwadi workers feed the information regarding the services delivered, through the mobile devices installed with ICDS-CAS application. Information entered by the AWWs is visible on the dashboard that can be accessed at Block, District, State and Centre Level at www.icds-cas.gov.in.

The Roll-Out of ICT-RTM has been initiated in 6 states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. A total of 70,000+ Smart Phone devices pre-installed with ICDS-CAS Software Application have been provided in these 06 States. 70,299 Anganwadi Workers have been trained in Phase-I in using the mobile application.

2. Pan-India expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme after successful   implementation in 161 districts:

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is one the flagship programmes of the Government, launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi on 22^nd January, 2015 at Panipat, Haryana to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and address other related issues of disempowerment of women. 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 action in select 161 districts (low on CSR); Effective enforcement of Pre-Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act and enabling girls' education.

The programme will be completing 3 years shortly. It has been successful in establishing improvement in CSR as a National Agenda. Encouraging trends are visible as per the latest HMIS data of M/o HFW for 161 BBBP districts for the time period between April-March, 2015-16 & 2016-17 indicating that, an improving trend in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) is visible in 104 districts, 119 districts have reported progress in first trimester registration against the reported Anti Natal Care registrations and 146 districts have reported improvement in institutional deliveries. In addition, as per Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2015-16, the girl’s enrolment in secondary education has increased to 80.97% against 76% in 2013-14. Construction of girl’s toilets in every school in selected districts has been achieved.

Based on the successful implementation in 161 districts, the Cabinet has approved the expansion of BBBP which would include Multi-sectoral intervention in 244 districts in addition to existing 161 districts, where physical implementation of the scheme will happen under the leadership of Collector/DM/DC. 235 districts are to be covered through Alert District Media, Advocacy and Outreach, thus covering all the 640 districts (as per census 2011) of the Country to have a deeper positive impact on Child Sex Ratio.

The Cabinet has approved the expansion for Pan India Coverage with a proposed outlay of Rs. 1132.5 Crore from 2017-18 to 2019-20, to be funded 100% by the Central Government.

Social Media Presence:

5. BBBP Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WCD.BetiBachaoBetiPadhao
5. YouTube channel on BBBP (for films/ audio-video spots): www.youtube.com/user/BetiBachaoBetiPadhao
5. Vikaspedia: http://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/women-and-child-development/child-development-1/girl-child-welfare/beti-bachao-beti-padhao
5. BBBP Mobile Application: https://apps.mgov.gov.in/descp.do?appid=792

3. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

The Hon’ble Prime Minister, on 31^st December, 2016, had announced Pan-India implementation of Maternity Benefit Programme to eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers. The Programme has since been named as Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY). The eligible beneficiaries would receive cash incentive of Rs 6000/- as per approved norms during pregnancy and after institutional delivery.

The Scheme Implementation Guidelines, the software for roll out of the Scheme i.e. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana - Common Application Software (PMMVY-CAS) and its User Manual have been launched on 01.09.2017 by the Hon’ble Minister (WCD). So far, Rs. 2016.37 Crores to all 36 States/UTs have been sanctioned under PMMVY during 2017-18 out of which Rs. 1991.72 Crores have been released till 20.12.2017.

4. Universal Scheme for Adolescent Girls:

The Government on 16.11.2017 approved implementation of the Scheme for Adolescent Girls for out of school girls in the age group of 11-14 years to provide them nutrition support and vocational /skill training under non-nutrition.  The scheme  has been extended to additional 303 districts in addition to existing 205 districts across the country in 2017-18  targeting targets  to  provide  nutrition  to  40  lakh  out of school adolescent girls of age 11-14 years  in 2017-18. Against the allocation of Rs. 460 crore for Scheme for Adolescent Girls for 2017-18, Rs. 333.59 crore (as on 20.12.2017) have been released to States/UTs benefitting 81.97 lakh adolescent girls (as reported by States/UTs).

5. Women Welfare:

2017 saw the launch of Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme to address women’s issues at the village level. Over 300 thousand student volunteers are being sent out in 115 most backward districts under this new scheme. These volunteers, mobilised through local colleges, NCC, NSS, NYK etc., will work with local women to help them access government schemes for their benefit. District Level Centres for Women are also being set up in 640 districts under this scheme, which will provide convergence at the district level for all initiatives related to women. State Resource Centres for Women will be the state-level mechanism to ensure coordination between blocks, districts, state and centre.

 The National Policy for Women, 2017 was drafted and is currently under consideration. The Policy has been prepared keeping in view the socio economic changes that have occurred since the last policy of 2001. It has taken into consideration multi-stakeholder feedback. Over 15,000 crowd-sourced ideas have been considered as part of the policy formulation process. The draft Policy addresses the diverse needs of women with regard to health including food security and nutrition; education; economy including agriculture, industry, labour, employment, NRI women, soft power, service sector, science and technology; governance and decision making; violence; creation of an enabling environment among others.

In a game-changing initiative for working women, Maternity leave has been extended to a period of 26 weeks (~6 months). Passport rules have been amended in favour of single mothers. Now either mother or father’s name can be provided in application form and do not have to provide certificate of marriage/divorce during application.

In the last one year, 117 new One Stop Centres (OSCs) have become operational in addition to previous 51 OSCs. These 168 centres have offered support to over 70,000 women. They offer a single window to a range of services including access to police, medical, legal and psychological support and temporary shelter in 32 States/UTs. A further 150 OSCs are planned to be set up by 2020.

During 2017, 10 new Women Helplines with the uniform code 181 have been started taking total coverage now in 28 States. Over 11 lakh calls of women have been handled in the past one year or so.

To help women report incidents of Sexual harassment at the workplace, an online complaint mechanism – SHe-Box – has been established. Any female employee in the country, whether employed by the government or private, can file an online complaint of sexual harassment through this portal.

An amendment has been proposed by the Ministry to the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 so as to make child marriages henceforth void ab initio or invalid in law. This would be an effective deterrent to the practice. In 2017, the Ministry also took up the issue for dichotomy between IPC Section 375 (rape) and the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. In accordance with this, a decision by the Hon’ble Supreme Court this year has criminalized sex between a man and his underage wife – a big success for the Ministry. Further, since Panchayats are usually aware of the child marriages occurring in their villages, the Ministry is working to prosecute panchayat members for promoting or permitting solemnization of child marriages.

The Ministry has conceptualized, after extensive stakeholder consultations, a comprehensive Bill on Trafficking which clearly outlines and differentiates between Regulatory and Rehabilitation aspects. The Bill is under consideration.

A number of projects are being implemented under the Nirbhaya Fund, which is managed by the Ministry for the safety and security of women. Proposals amounting to more than Rs. 2,000 Cr. have been appraised in the last one year. A robust online MIS has been developed to track implementation of all the projects under Nirbhaya.

A focussed project for women’s safety in 8 prominent cities is being prepared under the Nirbhaya Fund, which will cover Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow.

A project for Integrated Emergency Response Management under Nirbhaya is run by Railways. CCTVs and monitoring rooms are being installed at 983 major Railway Stations to provide 24x7 security to women passengers at stations and in trains.

Mahila Police Volunteers are being appointed to encourage women to report crime and are serving as role models in their communities. The scheme is currently operational in 5 States.

Central Victim Compensation Fund has been created under Nirbhaya, which is a corpus fund to support States/UTs for their Victim Compensation Scheme. This is helping ensure adequate and timely support for women survivors of crime and violence.

New Taxi Policy Guidelines have been put in place in consultation with the Ministry which have much improved safety measures for women.

To address the issue of easy availability of child sexual abuse material/imagery, an Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), with membership of MWCD has issued an advisory to all Internet Service Providers within the country to prevent the distribution and transmission of child sexual abuse material. Efforts are being made to develop of a fast track mechanism (green channel) to complain and enable swift and speedy removal/blockage of online content offensive to women and children. 

A Public Grievance Cell is also active in the Ministry, which gives women and children citizens a way to send their grievances directly to the government. It has already processed ~18,000 complaints in the one year since its inception.

This year, the Ministry has taken many steps to build the capacities of Elected Women Representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions so they may exercise their power effectively. These women are being trained through the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development to take up their responsibilities as development planners.

6. Integrated Child Protection Scheme:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is executing an Integrated Child Protection Scheme for ensuring implementation of the JJ Act. The scheme has been brought under the Umbrella ICDS as its sub-scheme with the nomenclature as Child Protection Services. The erstwhile ICPS got EFC approval for the FFC period 2017-18 & 2019-20. The financial norms under the scheme were enhanced with the following important changes:

1. The maintenance grant for children of Rs.2000/- has been increased by 8 % annually in homes, open shelter and SAAs.
2. Increase in programmatic allocation for CIF Head Office & its regional centers, by Rs.9.70 crore for protection services of CHILDLINE.         

7. Cradle Baby Reception Center:

The Ministry has stressed upon the need to place cradles at important locations such as hospitals, PHC, etc. to save the lives of unwanted new born babies and placing them in the adoption net managed by CARA with the intent to rehabilitate them in the familial care.

8. Celebration of Hausala 2017:

WCD Ministry celebrated the child rights week by hosting an inter-Child Care Institution festival, “Hausla 2017” for the children who reside in child care institutions between 16-20th November 2017. During the week-long celebration Children participated in various events like BalSansad, painting competition, athletics meet, football, chess competition and speech writing. More than 400 children from child care institutions across the country are participated in the event.

9. Khoya-Paya Portal:

   Citizen friendly web portal for Khoya Paya for reporting and searching missing children was launched in June, 2015.

Report of Missing & Sighted cases reported on Khoya-Paya Web Portal since 2^nd June 2015 to 19^th December, 2017:

1. Total Missing/Sighted cases published on the portal:    4976
2. Total Missing/Sighted cases rejected on the portal:       641
3. Total Missing/Sighted cases closed on the portal:          4704
4. POCSO:                                                                                              0
5. Total hits :                                                                                         212004

10. Railway CHILDLINE: 

33 Railway stations which serve as ‘source’ and ‘destination’ centres for child trafficking have been identified & rescue services has been started in collaboration with Ministry of Railways. The initiative is currently operating at 33 railway stations. Proposal for extending the service in 55 more new railway stations have been approved by the Ministry.

11. Skoch Order of Merit Award to CARINGS:

CARINGS has been rated on three parameters namely Early Bird, Jury Evaluation and Popular Vote and has been conferred the SKOCH Order-or-Merit Award during the 50^th SKOCH Summit on 20^th-21^st December 2017.

12. Swadhar Greh:

Swadhar Greh Scheme  targets the women victims of difficult circumstances and envisages providing shelter, food, clothing and health as well as economic and social security for these women. At present total 561 Swadhar Greh are functioning in the country benefiting 17291 beneficiaries. In addition one Widow Home with the capacity of 1000 inmates fully funded by the Ministry has been constructed at Sunrakh Bangar, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.

13. Construction of Anganwadi Centre (AWC) Buildings under MGNREGS in convergence with Anganwadi Services (under Umbrella ICDS Scheme):

Joint guidelines for construction of 2 lakh Anganwadi Centre (AWC) buildings in most backward districts of 11 States (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh) by 2019 under MGNREGS in convergence with ICDS Scheme have been jointly issued by Ministry of Rural Development and WCD on 13.08.2015. Taking into consideration the acute shortage of AWC buildings (around 4.5 lakhs) in the country, the convergence scheme for construction of AWC buildings has been extended to all districts across the country and the target for construction of AWCs has been enhanced from 2 lakh to 4 lakh in the four years (by 2019).

Drinking water and sanitation facilities will be provided in these AWCs from the funds available with Panchayati Raj Institutions under 14^th Finance Commission.

14. DBT onboarding of ICDS Scheme:

The Ministry has identified two components of ICDS Scheme, viz, (i) payment of honorarium to Anganwadi Worker and Anganwadi Helpers; and (ii) providing supplementary nutrition to pregnant women & lactating mothers and children in the age group of six months to six years, for transfer of benefits/services, using Aadhaar as the primary identifier of beneficiaries and has issued Gazette notification in this regard on 6^th February, 2017.This will help speed up delivery of services and prevent leakages.

15. Supplementary Nutrition (under the ICDS) Rules, 2017:

In pursuance of the provisions contained in the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, this Ministry has notified the Supplementary Nutrition (under Integrated Child Development Services Scheme) Rules, 2017 on 20^th February 2017 to regulate the entitlement specified under provisions of said Act for every pregnant women and lactating mother till 6 months after child birth, and every child in the age group of 6 months to 6 years (including those suffering from malnutrition) for 300 days in a year, as per the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II of the said Act.

Revision of cost norms for Supplementary Nutrition: The Government has also revised the cost norms for supplementary nutrition with annual indexation under the Anganwadi Services.

 16. Organisation of Women of India Festival 2017 (Dilli Haat, INA):

To encourage women producers of organic products, a Women of India Festival 2017 from 1^st to 15^th October 2017 at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi. Over 530 women farmers and entrepreneurs from 25 States of India and the remotest parts of the country participated in the Festival. Total Sales of all participants during the 15 day festival were to the tune of Rs. 1.84 crores.

Sattvik Food Festival – 23^rd to 25^th December, 2017 (Ahmedabad) –WCd Ministry setup 50 stalls in the said event thereby providing an opportunity to 100 participants (especially women entrepreneurs and farmers who produce organic products) to exhibit and sell their products thus making another attempt towards financial inclusion of these participants.

17. Swachh Bharat Mission:

The Ministry celebrated the Swachhta Pakhwada between 1^st-15^th March, 2017 to maintain universal sanitation and hygiene at Anganwadi Centres, all States/UTs were requested to give wide publicity to Government’s “Swachh Bharat Mission” and “Bal Swachhta Mission” by conducting activities on various themes [like Clean Anganwadis; Clean Surroundings e.g. Playgrounds; Clean Self (Personal Hygiene / Child Health), Clean Food, Clean Drinking Water, Clean Toilets] related to cleanliness and sanitation.

The Ministry also organised “Swachhta Hi Seva” campaign from 15^th Sept 2017 to 2^nd Oct 2017 as envisaged by Hon’ble Prime Minister.The Ministry carried out activities such as: White-washing the AWCs involving local communities; Cleanliness in and around the AWCs; weeding out of obsolete records and documents; Review of toilets constructed; Involving private sectors under CSR for Swachhta; Swachhta Drive in and around AWCs on the bank of rivers in convergence with ‘Namami Gange’; Construction of toilets in rented AWCs or shifting of such AWCs to the building having toilet facilities, etc. to mention a few.

18. International Women’s Day Celebration:

The International Women’s day was celebrated by the Ministry on 08.03.2017. whereby the Hon’ble President gave Nari Shakti Puraskars to eminent women and institutes, in recognition of their services, towards the cause of women empowerment.

19. Good Governance:

Following the successful implementation of e-Office and Rapid Reporting System, the Ministry has implemented Government e-Marketplace (GeM) which ensures that all public procurements are made through GeM as per provisions of GFR 2017.

 

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