Introduction

The Department of Women and Child Development was set up in the year 1985 as a part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to give the much needed impetus to the holistic development of women and children. With effect from 30.01.2006, the Department has been upgraded to a Ministry.

Mandate:

The broad mandate of the Ministry is to have holistic development of Women and Children. As a nodal Ministry for the advancement of women and children, the Ministry formulates plans, policies and programmes; enacts/ amends legislation, guides and coordinates the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental organisations working in the field of Women and Child Development. Besides, playing its nodal role, the Ministry implements certain innovative programmes for women and children. These programmes cover welfare and support services, training for employment and income generation, awareness generation and gender sensitization. These programmes play a supplementary and complementary role to the other general developmental programmes in the sectors of health, education, rural development etc. All these efforts are directed to ensure that women are empowered both economically and socially and thus become equal partners in national development along with men.

Policy Initiatives:

For the holistic development of the child, the Ministry has been implementing the world's largest and most unique and outreach programme of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) providing a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check up and referral services, pre-school non-formal education. Ministry is also implementing Swayamsidha which is an integrated scheme for empowerment of women.  There is effective coordination and monitoring of various sectoral programmes. Most of the programmes of the Ministry are run through non-governmental organisations. Efforts are made to have more effective involvement of NGOs.  The major policy initiatives undertaken by the Ministry in the recent past include universalisation of ICDS and Kishori Shakti Yojana, launching a nutrition programme for adolescent girls, establishment of the  Commission for protection of Child Rights and enactment of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. 

Organisation

            The Ministry of Women and Child Development is headed by Smt. Krishna Tirath , Minister of State (IC),  Sh. D.K. Sikri is the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.  The activities of the Ministry are undertaken through five bureaux. The following statement indicates the bureau and the officers heading them:

The Ministry has 6 autonomous organisations viz.

• National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)

• National Commission for women (NCW)

• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

• Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA)

• Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB)

• and Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

working under its aegis. NIPCCD and RMK are societies registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. CSWB is a charitable company registered under section 25 of the Indian Companies Act, 1956. These organisations are fully funded by the Govt. of India and they assist the Department in its functions including implementation of some programmes/schemes. The National Commission for Women was constituted as a national apex statutory body in 1992 for protecting and safeguarding the rights of women. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights which is a national level apex statutory body constituted in the March 2007 for protecting and safe guarding  the rights of children.

Subjects Allocated to the Ministry

• Welfare of the family.
• Women and Child Welfare and Coordination of activities of other Ministries and Organisation in connection with this subject.
• References from the United Nations Organizations relating to traffic in Women and Children
• Care of pre-school children including pre-primary education
• National Nutrition Policy, national Plan of Action for Nutrition and National Nutrition Mission.
• Charitable and religious endowments pertaining to subjects allocated to this Department
• Promotion and development of voluntary effort on the subjects allocated to this Department
• Implementation of -

  • Immoral Traffic in Women and Girl Act. 1956 (as amended upto 1986) .
  • The Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, 1986 (60 of 1986).
  • The Dowry Prohibition Act. 1961 (28 of 1961)
  • The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (3 of 1988), excluding the administration of criminal justice in regard to offences under these Acts.

• Implementation of the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Food (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 (41 of 1992).
• Coordination of activities of Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE)
• Planning, Research, Evaluation, Monitoring, Project Formulations, Statistics and Training relating to the welfare and development of women and children, including development of gender sensitive data base.

• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

• Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB)

• National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)

• Food and Nutrition Board

• Food and Nutrition Board (FNB)

  • Development and popularization of subsidiary and protective foods.

  • Nutrition extension.

• Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equity.

• National Commission for Women.

• Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)

• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (56 of 2000).

• Probation of Juvenile offenders.

• Issues relating to adoption, Central Adoption Resource Agency and Child Help Line (Childline.)

• The Children Act, 1960 (60 of 1960).

• The Child Marriage – Restraint Act, 1929 (19 of 1929).