Mission Shakti
About the Scheme
- The Government of India has launched ‘Mission Shakti’ – an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26.
- It is an integrated women empowerment programme aimed at strengthening interventions for women safety, security and empowerment.
- It seeks to realise the Government’s commitment for “women-led development‟ by addressing issues affecting women on a life-cycle continuum basis and by making them equal partners in nation-building through convergence and citizen-ownership.
- The scheme seeks to make women economically empowered, exercising free choice over their minds and bodies in an atmosphere free from violence and threat.
- It also seeks to reduce the care burden on women and increase female labour force participation by promoting skill development, capacity building, financial literacy, access to micro-credit etc.
Components
- Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes – ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’.
- In the “Sambal” sub-scheme, which is for safety and security of women, the existing scheme of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (WHL), BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP) have been included with a new component of Nari Adalats – women’s collectives to promote and facilitate alternative dispute resolution and gender justice in society and within families.
- In the “Samarthya” sub scheme, which is for empowerment of women, existing schemes of Ujjwala, SwadharGreh and Working Women Hostel have been included with modifications. In addition, the existing schemes of National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) have now been included in Samarthya.
Objectives
- The objectives of the Mission are as under:
- Provide immediate and comprehensive continuum of care, support and assistance to women affected by violence and for those in distress;
- To put in place quality mechanisms for rescue, protection and rehabilitation of women in need of assistance and victims of crime and violence;
- To improve accessibility to various government services available for women at various levels;
- Making people aware about Government schemes and programmes as well as legal provisions to fight social evils like dowry, domestic violence, Sexual Harassment at Workplace and to promote gender equality etc.
- Capacity building and training of functionaries/ duty bearers under various schemes/ Legislations;
- Collaboration with partner Ministries/ Departments/ States/ UTs for convergence of policies, programmes/ schemes and to create an enabling environment for public private partnership for safety and empowerment of women across sectors.
- Create awareness among masses for inducing positive behaviouralchangetowards women and girls.
- To prevent gender-biased sex selective elimination; to ensure survival, protection,education and development of the girl child.
Why in News?
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued detailed guidelines for ‘Mission Shakti’ scheme.
Special Initiatives and Schemes for Women
- National Commission for Women: In 1992, the Government set-up this statutory body with a specific mandate to study and monitor all matters relating to the constitutional and legal safeguards provided for women, review the existing legislation to suggest amendments wherever necessary, etc.
- Reservation for Women in Local Self-Government: The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts ensure one-third of the total seats for women in all elected offices in local bodies whether in rural areas or urban areas.
- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY): The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas launched PMUY in 2016 to provide clean cooking fuel to poor households. It provides deposit free LPG connections to poor households. The connections are issued in the name of women of the households.
- One Stop Centre Scheme: It is a centrally sponsored scheme which provides for a range of services including police facilitation, medical aid, psycho-social counselling, legal counselling and temporary shelter to women affected by violence in an integrated manner under one roof.
- Swadhar Greh: The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing the Swadhar Greh Scheme which targets the women victims of difficult circumstances who are in need of institutional support for rehabilitation so that they could lead their life with dignity.
- National Creche Scheme: The National Creche Scheme for the children of working mothers provides daycare facilities to the children. Under this scheme, the creches provide daycare services to children in the age group of 0 to 6 years of working mothers.
- Nirbhaya Fund: A dedicated non-lapsable corpus fund for implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the safety and security of women in the country. The fund is administered by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) is the nodal Ministry to appraise/recommend proposals and schemes to be funded under Nirbhaya Fund.
- Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013: It was passed to facilitate action against any form of sexual harassment at work which would disincentivise women from participating in the economy.
- Sexual Harassment electronic–Box (SHe-Box): An online complaint management system for registering complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace by women, including government and private employees.
- Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP): It is a tri-ministerial, convergent effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Education. The scheme is envisaged to address the declining Child Sex Ratio and related issues of women empowerment over a life-cycle continuum.
- Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana: It is a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme under which cash benefits are provided to pregnant women in their bank account directly to meet enhanced nutritional needs and partially compensate for wage loss. A conditional cash benefit of Rs. 5,000 in three installments is provided for the first living child of the family.
- Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY): A safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission (NHM) for curbing maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional deliveries especially among the pregnant women belonging to weaker socio-economic strata (SC, ST, BPL households).
- Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017: The amendment increased the duration of paid maternity leave available for women from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, introduced an enabling provision relating to “work from home” for women and also made crèche facilities mandatory for every establishment employing 50 or more employees.
- Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP): STEP has been envisaged to train women with no access to formal skill training facilities, especially in rural India. The initiative reaches out to all Indian women above 16 years of age. The programme imparts skills in several sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, food processing, handlooms, traditional crafts like embroidery, travel and tourism, hospitality, computer and IT services.
- Stand-Up India: This scheme facilitates loans between 10 lakh and 1 crore to at least one scheduled caste/scheduled tribe and one woman per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise (manufacturing, services or the trading sector). In case of non-individual enterprises, at least 51 per cent of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.
- Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK): RMK provides micro-credit to women in the informal sector without collateral for income generation activities.
- Mahila E-Haat: It is a website which leverages technology for showcasing products made/ manufactured/sold by women entrepreneurs. It provides access to markets for women entrepreneurs across the country.
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