Parliament Question: Safety and Welfare of Women and Children

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3606 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026 SAFETY AND WELFARE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 3606. SHRI ZIA UR REHMAN: Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is cognizant of the challenges being faced in ensuring nutrition, safety and welfare of women and children, particularly in rural and economically weaker regions of the country; and (b) if so, the details of the steps that have been taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to strengthen nutrition programmes, enhance protection mechanisms and improve overall welfare services for women and children? ANSWER MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI) (a) & (b) For effective implementation and efficient monitoring, various schemes implemented by the Ministry of Women & Child Development for nutrition, safety and welfare of women and children all over the country, including in rural and economically weaker regions of the country, have been reviewed and clubbed into three Umbrella Missions viz. (1) Mission Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0 with the objective to improve nutrition & health indicators (2) Mission Shakti, for safety, protection and empowerment of women; and (3) Mission Vatsalya, for protection, care and welfare of children in difficult circumstances. Details of the schemes are as under: (i) Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0 (Mission Poshan 2.0): Under this mission, Anganwadi Services Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyaan and Scheme for Adolescent Girls have been reorganized into 3 primary sub-verticals: (i) Nutrition Support for Children, Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers and for Adolescent Girls (ii) Early Childhood Care and Education and (iii) Anganwadi Infrastructure including upgraded Saksham Anganwadis. Under this Mission the details of beneficiaries as on 28.02.2026 are as hereunder: Children 7,67,90,933 Pregnant Women 57,90,373 Lactating Mothers 56,43,545 Adolescent Girls 15,61,716 (ii) Mission Shakti: It aims at strengthening interventions for women safety, security and empowerment. Mission Shakti comprises of two verticals 'Sambal' for safety and security of women and "Samarthya for empowerment of women including rural and economically weakerregions of the country. The 'Sambal has components of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline(WHL), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) and Nari Adalat (Nari Adalat). The 'Samarthya' has components of Shakti Sadan, Sakhi Niwas, Padhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Palna and SANKALP: Hub for Empowerment of Women (SNKALP: HEW). As on 31st January, 2026, about 1.11 crore Women have been assisted through OSCs and Women Helpline all over the country. Under PMVVY an amount of Rs.20, 101.00 crore has been paid to about 4.27 crore beneficiaries. (iii) Mission Vatsalya: Mission Vatsalya includes the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) for better outreach and protection for children in need and care in a mission mode with the objective to: (i) Support and sustain Children in difficult circumstances. (ii) Develop context-based solutions for holistic development of children from varied backgrounds. (iii)Provide scope for encouraging innovative solutions, (iv) Cement convergent action. Under Mission Vatsalya about 82,005 children are in institutional care and there are 3799 Child Care Institutes. In addition to this, the Government of India earmarks a certain percentage of the national budget exclusively for women and girls. In the gender budget statement of FY 2026-27, an allocation of Rs. 5.01 lakh crore has been reported for welfare of women and girls, including their nutrition, safety, empowerment etc. A total of 53 Ministries/Departments and 5 UTs have reported Gender Budget allocations in FY 2026-27. Ministries/Departments that have reported more than 30% of their total allocations in the Gender Budget for FY 2026-27 are Ministry of Women & Child Development (81.73%), Department of Rural Development (69.92%), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (48.60%), Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (48.04%), Department of Food and Public Distribution (46.34%), Department of Health and Family Welfare (40.44%), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy(39.05%), Department of Higher Education ((32.25%), Ministry of Panchayati Raj (30.93%), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (30.22%) and Department of School Education and literacy (30.10%). *****