Strategic Interventions for Addressing Malnutrition Concerns and Empowerment of Women and Children

Empowerment and protection of women and children who constitute 67.7% of India’s population and ensuring their wholesome development in a safe and secure environment is crucial for sustainable and equitable development of the country and for achieving transformational economic and social changes. Ministry of Women and Child Development strives to ensure well-nourished and happy children and confident, self-reliant women by providing them with an environment which is accessible, affordable, reliable and 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 to promote inter-ministerial and inter- sectoral convergence to create gender equitable and child centred legislation, policies and programmes.

To achieve the above objectives, Cabinet has recently approved 3 important Umbrella Schemes of the Ministry to be implemented in mission mode, viz., Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya.

Mission POSHAN 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. It 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 creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. Poshan 2.0 will seek to optimize the quality and delivery of food under the Supplementary Nutrition Program.

Mission Poshan 2.0 will contribute to human capital development of the country; address malnutrition challenges; promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health & 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.Poshan 2.0 will bring 3 important programmes/schemes under its ambit, viz., Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Poshan Abhiyaan.

Poshan 2.0 shall 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.

Mission Poshan 2.0 will integrate several key strategies to fulfil its objectives, viz., Corrective strategies, Nutrition Awareness strategies, Communication strategies and Creation of green eco-systems. The objectives under Mission Poshan 2.0 will be realized through strong interventions-driven convergent activities with key Ministries/Depts./Organizations.

Digital infrastructure under the “Poshan Tracker” rolled out by MoWCD on 1^st March 2021 through National e-Governance Division as a governance tool, will strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems. Technology under Poshan Tracker is being leveraged for (i) dynamic identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children; (ii) last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.

Mission Shakti envisages a 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 safety and security of women, the “Samarthya” sub-scheme is for empowerment of women. The Sambal sub-scheme consists of the existing scheme of One Stop Centres (OSC), Women Helplines (181-WHL) 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 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 Vatsalya Children have been recognized by policy makers as one of the supreme national assets. India is home to 472 million children upto the age of 18 years and comprise 39 percent of the country’s population. The objective of Mission Vatsalya is to secure a healthy and happy childhood for every child in India; foster a sensitive, supportive and synchronized ecosystem for development of children; assist States/UTs in delivering the mandate of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015; achieve the SDG goals.

Components under Mission Vatsalya will include statutory bodies; service delivery structures; institutional care/services; non-institutional community based care; emergency outreach services; training and capacity building.

All 3 Missions will be implemented during the 15^th Finance Commission period 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Mission POSHAN 2.0including PoshanAbhiyaanhas a total financial implication of ₹1,81,703 crore, comprising₹1,02,031 crore as Central share and ₹79,672 crore as State share. The increase in Central share is approx. Rs 10,108.76cr (10.99%). The total cost under Mission Poshan 2.0 has been calculated on the basis of cost sharing ratio between the Central and States/UTs, as approved by Government i.e., 60:40 for States and UTs with legislature, 90:10 for NER & Himalayan States and UT of J&K and 100% for Union Territories without legislature.

Mission Shakti has a total financial implicationof Rs 20989 Crore, with a Central Share of Rs 15761 Cr and State share of Rs 5228 Cr. The sub-scheme of ‘Sambal’ will be implemented as Centrally Sponsored scheme with 100% central funding from Nirbhaya Fund/ MWCD budget with provision for direct release of funds to the District Collector or the concerned Directorate/Commissionerate in State/ UT. The sub-scheme ‘Samarthya’ will be implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with funding ratio of 60:40 between Centre and State Governments / UTs with legislature, except North East & Special Category States / UTs with legislature where the fund ratio will be 90:10. For UTs without legislature, 100% funding will be provided by the Central Government. The total central share funds outlay under Mission Shakti has been increased to approx. 24 % from Rs. 12742 Cr to 15761 Cr.

Mission Vatsalya has a total financial implication of Rs 10916 Crore, with a Central Share of Rs 6928 and State share of Rs 3988. During last 5 years, 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 CPS scheme.