The Central government has significantly increased its share to achieve Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya.
Women and children constitute 67.7 per cent of India’s population. Their safety and secured living environment are crucial for the sustainable and equitable development of the country and for achieving transformational economic and social changes. The government ensures well-nourished and happy children as well as confident, self-reliant women by providing them with an environment that is accessible, affordable, reliable, free from all forms of discrimination and violence. The prime objective of the ministry is to address gaps in State action for women and children and promote inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral convergence to create gender equitable and child-centric legislation, policies and programmes.
The Union cabinet recently approved three important Umbrella Schemes, such as Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti andMission Vatsalya to achieve these objectives.
Mission Poshan 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme that seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by the creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. The mission will contribute to the human capital development of the country; address malnutrition challenges; promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health and well-being and address nutrition-related deficiencies through key strategies. Under the programme, nutritional norms and standards and quality and testing of THR will be improved and greater stakeholder and beneficiary participation will be promoted besides traditional community food habits. The mission will bring three important schemes under its ambit, which are Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Poshan Abhiyaan.
This plan will focus on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment of MAM/SAM and Wellness through AYUSH. It will rest on the pillars of Convergence, Governance, and Capacity-building. Poshan Abhiyan will be the key pillar for Outreach and will cover innovations related to nutritional support, ICT interventions, Media Advocacy and Research, Community Outreach and Jan Andolan.
The mission will integrate several key strategies to fulfil its objectives of corrective strategies, nutrition awareness strategies, communication strategies and creation of green eco-systems.
The total financial implication of Rs 1,81,703 crore, comprising Rs 1,02,031 crore as Central share and Rs 79,672 crore as State share. The Central share has gone up to Rs 10,108.76 crore, an increase of 10.99 per cent.
Mission Shakti envisages unified citizen-centric lifecycle support for women through integrated care, safety, protection, rehabilitation and empowerment to unshackle women as they progress through various stages of their life. Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes Sambal’ and Samarthya. While the Sambal sub-scheme is for the safety and security of women, the Samarthya sub-scheme is for the empowerment of women. The Sambal sub-scheme consists of the existing scheme of One Stop Centres (OSC), Women Helplines and BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP). Besides, a new component of Nari Adalats has been added as women’s collectives to promote and facilitate alternative dispute resolution and gender justice in society and within families. The Samarthya sub-scheme is for the empowerment of women, consisting of existing schemes of Ujjwala, SwadharGreh and Working Women Hostel. In addition, the National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers and the Pradhan Mantri Matru VandanaYojana (PMMVY), which have been under the Umbrella ICDS Scheme till now, are also subsumed in Samarthya.
Mission Shakti has a total financial implication of Rs 20,989 crore with a central share of Rs 15,761 crore and a State share of Rs 5228 crore. The sub-scheme of Sambal will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored scheme with 100 per cent Central funding from Nirbhaya Fund budget with provision for direct release of funds to the District Collector or the concerned Directorate / Commissionerate in State and UTs. The sub-schemeSamarthya will be implemented as a Centrally sponsored scheme with a funding ratio of 60:40 between Centre and State governments / UTs with the legislature, except North East & Special Category States / UTs with legislature where the fund ratio will be 90:10. For UTs without a legislature, 100 per cent funding will be provided by the Central Government. The total central share funds outlay under Mission Shakti has been increased to approx. 24 per cent from Rs 12,742 crore to 15761 crore.
Policymakers have recognized children as one of the supreme national assets. India is home to 472 million children, below the age of 18 and comprise 39 per cent of the country’s population. Mission Vatsalya aims to secure a healthy and happy childhood for every child in India; foster a sensitive, supportive and synchronized ecosystem for the development of children; assist States and Union Territories in delivering the mandate of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015; achieve the SDG goals.
Mission Vatsalya has a total financial implication of Rs 10916 crore, with a Central Share of Rs 6928 crore and a State share of Rs 3988 crore. During the last five years, the total allocation under Child Protection Services (CPS) Scheme was Rs 3852 crore which shows an increase of about 63.68% in allocation under Mission Vatsalya as compared to the CPS scheme.
All three missions will be implemented during the period of the 15th Finance Commission between 2021-22 to 2025-26.
