Parliament Question: Awareness Programmes for Women

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1127 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.07.2025 AWARENESS PROGRAMMES FOR WOMEN +1127. SHRI RAMASHANKAR VIDHARTHI RAJBHAR: Will the Minister of Women and Child Development be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that adequate facilities for nutrition, health, security and education of women and children are not available in many districts of Uttar Pradesh, if so, the details of the remedial steps taken in this regard; (b) the details of the schemes/awareness programmes being run in the said State to prevent child marriage, human trafficking/domestic violence alongwith the progress made therein; (c) whether any new scheme has been approved for improving honorarium, training/social security of Anganwadi, Asha Bahu and women members of Self Help Group, if so, the details thereof; (d) whether any new initiative is being taken in the said State to strengthen Anganwadi Centres and eliminate malnutrition, if so, the details thereof; and (e) whether there is any scheme to provide loan/subsidy to women for higher education, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR) (a): The Central Government gives highest priority for ensuring that adequate facilities are put in place for nutrition, health, security and education of women and children in the country including in the State of Uttar Pradesh. The major schemes/ programmes implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in this regard are as follows: The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) during the 15th Finance Commission period, with effect from the financial year 2022-23, implements Centrally Sponsored Schemes for the welfare of women and children, organized under three key verticals: (1) Mission Shakti, which focuses on the safety, protection, and empowerment of women through its two sub-components—Sambal, for safety and security, and Samarthya,for empowerment; (2) Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0, aimed at improving nutrition and health of children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers, along with early childhood care and education; and (3) Mission Vatsalya, dedicated to the protection and welfare of children in difficult circumstances, including those in need of care and protection and those in conflict with the law. Further, there are a number of schemes implemented by various Ministries/ Departments of the Central Government education, hygiene and security of women and children in the country including in the State of Uttar Pradesh. Some of these schemes are as under: i. Samagra Shiksha, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Babu Jagjeevan Ram Chhatravas Yojana, Eklavya Model Residential Schools and various scholarship schemes including pre-matric, post-matric and scholarship for higher education and fellowship as well as e-learning platforms like ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology’ (NMEICT) Scheme, SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds), SWAYAM PRABHA, National Digital Library (NDL), Virtual Lab, e-Yantra, PM e-Vidya, NEAT (National Education Alliance for Technology) etc have been implemented for ensuring affordable and quality education for all including women and girls. ii. Under Ayushman Bharat, the Government is providing free of cost treatment through over 1200 medical packages. Out of these, over 141 medical packages are exclusively designed for addressing medical needs of women. Seven types of screening (TB, Hypertension, Diabetes, Oral Cancer, Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer and Cataract) are provided under the scheme, which have benefitted crores of women. There are over 1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs), also referred to as Ayushman Arogya Mandir, in both urban and rural areas, bring health care closer to the community. iii. There are over 16,000 Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras (PMBJK) functional across the country. The PMBJK besides providing affordable medicines and medical devices, including about 40 women specific items also have provision for sale of Sanitary Napkins named ‘Suvidha Sanitary Napkins’ at extremely affordable price of Rupee 1 per pad. iv. Prime Minister Awaas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) aim to provide ‘Housing for All’ through provision of pucca house with basic amenities to all houseless families and households living in kutcha and dilapidated house in rural areas and the housing requirement of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) including slum dwellers in the urban areas. v. Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY), skill and vocational training is provided to women. vi. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) provides digital literacy to rural populations. vii. Women are also the largest beneficiaries under Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna (PM- JDY) one of the largest financial inclusion initiatives in the world which also provides access to direct benefits under various welfare schemes, credit and insurance services. viii. Stand Up India and MUDRA Yojna facilitate bank loans and entrepreneurial activities and have majorly benefitted women entrepreneurs.ix. Atal Pension Yojana (APY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) have been implemented to provide social protection through insurance coverage and pension. x. In order to reduce drudgery and enhance the ease of living for the women particularly in the rural areas of the country, including in the State of Uttar Pradesh, under the Swacch Bharat Mission more than 11.8 crore toilets have been constructed, 10.3 crore households have been provided Clean cooking fuel through Ujjawala Yojana and safe and potable tap water connection to over 15.6 crore households through Jal Jeevan Mission. (b): Following are some of the schemes/ awareness programmes being run in the country including Uttar Pradesh to prevent child marriage, human trafficking/domestic violence: i. The Central Government launched ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’ campaign on 27th November 2024 which focuses on making the country child marriage free. Under the campaign, a portal ‘https://stopchildmarriage.wcd.gov.in’ has been launched to support the States and UTs in raising awareness against child marriage and for effective reporting and prevention of incidences of child marriage. The portal also has facility to provide information to citizens about Child Marriage Prohibition Officers (CMPOs) of all States and UTs. The portal is available in 22 languages. ii. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has launched the SHe-Box portal, a centralised digital platform that serves not only as a confidential complaint mechanism but also as a repository for information on Internal Committees (ICs) and Local Committees (LCs) across the country. This platform plays a crucial role in enabling women to report sexual harassment securely and confidentially, contributing to increased accountability and long-term cultural change in workplaces. The portal is available in 22 languages and also has facility of audio captcha so as to remove the language as well as disability barriers for women from different regions of the country. iii. The Government has also launched several key initiatives to strengthen crime tracking and inter-agency coordination, with a focus on combating human trafficking. Cri-MAC enables 24x7 real-time information sharing among Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), aiding swift action on major crimes, including trafficking. Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) that functions as an online analytical tool to monitor and track police investigations in cases of sexual offences. The National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) helps monitor sexual offenders, while the National Database of Human Trafficking Offenders (NDHTO) supports LEAs efforts to identify and track human trafficking offenders nationwide. Under Nirbhaya Fund, Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) are integrated task forces to prevent and combat trafficking in persons and comprise of a group of trained sensitive officials of Police, Women and Child Welfare Department and other relevant Departments of the State. AHTUs attend to all three aspects of trafficking viz. prevention, protection and prosecution and are thus the field level functional units to address human trafficking in a holistic manner. A total of 827 AHTUs are functional in approximately 700 out of 766 districts including 807 acrossall States/ UTs and 15 in Border Security Force (BSF) and 5 in Sashastra Suraksha Bal (SSB). iv. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, strengthens India's legal framework against human trafficking through several key provisions. Sections 143 and 144 replace and expand IPC Sections 370 and 370A, defining trafficking broadly and prescribing stringent punishments, especially for trafficking of multiple persons or children and their exploitation. Section 111 introduces the offence of Organized Crime, which includes trafficking for prostitution. Other relevant provisions include Section 69 (sexual intercourse on false promise of marriage or employment), Section 95 (using children to commit offences), and Section 99 (buying a child for prostitution) also cover the offence of human trafficking directly or indirectly. v. Furthermore, for the safety of women survivors of domestic violence, there are several Projects/ Schemes under Nirbhaya Fund have been implemented/ being implemented in the State of Uttar Pradesh: One Stop Centres (OSCs) which is an institution located at district level offering under one roof immediate help and support to women in distress such as temporary shelter, medical & police assistance, counselling and legal support, the Women Helpline (WHL) 181 provides toll-free 24-hours telecom service to women seeking support and information. Currently, in Uttar Pradesh, there are 96 operational OSCs with at least one OSC in each of the 75 districts which have assisted over 2.85 lakh women upto 30.06.2025. While, Universalisation of Women Helpline (WHL)-181 functional in 35 States/ UTs including Uttar Pradesh. WHL in UP has handled over 12.82 lakh calls and assisted over 8.5 lakh women till 31.05.2025. (c) and (d): Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is a Centrally Sponsored scheme. The Central Government is responsible for policy and planning and the State Governments are responsible for day-to-day program implementation of this scheme. Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs) are “honorary workers” from the local community who volunteer their services for child care and development to help the community. Being honorary and voluntary workers, they are paid a monthly honorarium as decided by Government from time to time. Currently, an Anganwadi Worker is paid honorarium @ Rs.4,500/- per month and Anganwadi Helper is paid honorarium @Rs.2,250/- per month on cost sharing basis between the Centre and State/UT along with performance linked incentive of Rs.250/- per month for AWHs and Rs.500/- to AWWs. In addition, States/UTs are also paying additional monetary incentives/ honorarium to these functionaries from their own resources which vary from State to State. They are neither recruited nor appointed in the program through any open, competitive process of recruitment. As per Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 Guidelines issued by the Ministry, 50% of the position of AWWs and Supervisors are required to be filled by the AWH and AWW respectively, subject to fulfilment of other criteria. States/ UTs have been requested to adopt a uniform retirement date i.e 30th April of each year with respect to Anganwadi Workersand Helpers to ensure proper human resource planning. Keeping in view the importance of their contribution towards society, Government provides insurance benefits to Anganwadi Workers and Helpers under Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) to AWWs/ AWHs in the age group of 18 to 50 years and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana to AWWs and AWHs in the age group of 18-59 years. MWCD has also requested State Governments/ UT Administrations to encourage eligible AWWs/AWHs to enrol themselves under Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan (PM-SYM) Pension Scheme on voluntary basis to get an assured monthly pension on attaining the age of 60 years. From the financial year 2024-25, healthcare cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme has been extended to all AWW/AWHs. Apart from the above, other facilities are also being extended to AWWs/AWHs, including leave of 20 days per year, paid absence on abortion/ miscarriage once for 45 days and paid maternity absence of 180 days. There is a provision for set of two uniforms (saree/suit) per annum to AWW/ AWHs. Further, Mission Poshan 2.0 empowers the frontline functionaries i.e. Anganwadi workers by providing them with smart phones. The ‘Poshan Tracker’ application was rolled out on 1st March 2021 as an important governance tool to strengthen and bring about transparency in nutrition delivery support systems at the Anganwadi centres. Poshan Tracker facilitates monitoring and tracking of all Anganwadi Centers, Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and beneficiaries on defined indicators. (e): The Scholarship Division of Department of Higher Education is currently administering the following two schemes pertaining to loan/subsidy. They are not gender specific but rather aim at helping all the meritorious students eligible under the scheme: i. PM-USP CSIS: Under this Scheme Interest Subsidy is given during the moratorium period i.e., Course period plus one year on Education Loan taken from the Scheduled Banks under the Model Education Loan Scheme of Indian Banks Association to students belonging to economically weaker sections whose annual parental income is up to Rs. 4.5 Lakh from all sources. ii. PM Vidyalaxmi: The scheme provides for collateral free, guarantor free education loans to meritorious students who get admission in the top 860 quality higher educational institutions of the nation; made accessible through a simple, transparent, student-friendly and entirely digital application process. Furthermore, for students with up to Rs. 8 lakhs annual family income, the scheme will also provide for 3% interest subvention on loans up to Rs 10 lakh. In addition to the above, there are pre and post matric scholarship schemes implemented by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Minority Affairs for the students belonging to SC/ ST and minority communities. *****