Government
approves a Rs. 9000 Crore National Nutrition Mission
Pan-India Expansion
of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Universalization of Scheme for Adolescent Girls
Pradhanmantri
Matru Vandana Yojana for pregnant women and lactating mothers launched
117 New One Stop
Centres and 10 new Women Helplines become operational in 2017
Maternity Leave
extended to a period of 26 weeks
Online complaint
mechanism for Sexual Harassment at Workplace ‘She-Box’ established
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:
|
2.
S.No
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3.
Objective
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4.
Target
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|
5.
1.
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6.
Prevent
and reduce stunting in children (0-6 years)
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7.
By
6% @ 2% p.a
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|
8.
2.
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9.
Prevent
and reduce under nutrition (underweight prevalence) in children (0-6 years)
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10.
By
6% @ 2% p.a
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11.
3.
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12.
Reduce
the prevalence of anemia among young Children (6-59 months)
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13.
By
9% @ 3% p.a
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14.
4.
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15.
Reduce
the prevalence of anemia among Women and Adolescent Girls in the age group of
15-49 years
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16.
By
9% @ 3% p.a
|
|
17.
5.
|
18.
Reduce
Low Birth Weight (LBW)
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19.
By
6% @ 2% p.a
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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 22nd 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:
E
BBBP Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WCD.BetiBachaoBetiPadhao
E
YouTube channel on BBBP (for films/ audio-video
spots): www.youtube.com/user/BetiBachaoBetiPadhao
E
Vikaspedia: http://vikaspedia.in/social-welfare/women-and-child-development/child-development-1/girl-child-welfare/beti-bachao-beti-padhao
E
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 31st 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:
i.
The
maintenance grant for children of Rs.2000/- has been increased by 8 % annually
in homes, open shelter and SAAs.
ii.
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 2nd
June 2015 to 19th 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 50th SKOCH Summit on 20th-21st
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 14th 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 6th 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 20th
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 1st to 15th
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 – 23rd
to 25th 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 1st-15th 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 15th
Sept 2017 to 2nd 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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NB/UD