Year End Review-2022: Ministry of Women and Child Development Part-1

Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD)

The Ministry of Women and Child Development was constituted with the goal of addressing gaps in State action for women and children to create gender equitable and child-centred policies and programmes.
The Ministry has 6 autonomous organisations.
1. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)
2. National Commission for women (NCW)
3. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
4. Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA)
5. Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB)
6. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

National Commission for women (NCW)

The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 to
- Review the Constitutional and Legal safeguards for women
- Recommend remedial legislative measures
- Facilitate redressal of grievances
- Advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

NCPCR was set up in 2007 under the Act of Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
It is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
Under the NCPCR, the child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
Mandate - To ensure that all laws, policies and programmes are in consonance with child rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) was set up in 1990.
It is a statutory body established under Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
CARA functions as the nodal body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country adoptions.
It is the central authority to deal with inter-country adoptions as per the provisions of the Hague Convention on inter-country Adoption, 1993.
India became a signatory to this convention in 2003.

KEY INITIATIVES/ACHIEVEMENTS OF MoWCD

Under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, there are just 3 schemes now out of 19 schemes.
1. Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 - Nutrition support for children, adolescent girls and pregnant women & lactating mothers and for early childhood care & education
2. Mission Shakti - Safety, security and empowerment of women
3. Mission Vatsalya – Child protection and child welfare services

1. POSHAN Abhiyaan

The National Nutrition Mission (NNM) which was later rebranded as the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN Abhiyaan) was set up in 2018.
It has the objective of reducing malnutrition in women, children and adolescent girls.
The Ministry of Women and Child (MWCD) is the nodal Ministry implementing the NNM to align different ministries to work in tandem on the window of opportunity of the first 1,000 days in life.

2. POSHAN 2.0

It places a special emphasis on selected high impact essential nutrition interventions, such as

3. POSHAN Tracker

The ‘Poshan Tracker’ is a mobile based application rolled out in 2021 through National e-Governance Division (NeGD).
It is being leveraged for identification of stunting, wasting, under-weight prevalence among children and last mile tracking of nutrition service delivery.

4. Poshan Pakhwada

Poshan Pakhwada, a nutrition centric mass movement for Poshan Abhiyaan, emphasised on two broad areas.
1. Identification and celebration of healthy child
2. Integration of modern and traditional practices for healthy India
Themes - Height and weight measurement of children up to 6 years of age, Gender sensitive water management, Anaemia, Traditional food for healthy mother and child especially in tribal areas, etc.

5. Rashtriya Poshan Maah

The Rashtriya Poshan Maah is being celebrated during the month of September every year under POSHAN Abhiyaan.
This year, the objective is to trigger Poshan Maah through Gram Panchayats as Poshan Panchayats with key focus on “Mahila aur Swasthya” and “Bacha aur Shiksha”.

To know about Part-2, click here

Reference