Chapter on Welfare

SHORT STAY HOMES

  • Under the scheme, temporary shelter to the needy women and girls is provided for 6 months to 3 years.
  • Children accompanying the mother or born in the home are permitted to stay in the home upto age of 7 years, after which they may be referred to children’s institutes.

WORKING WOMENS’ HOSTEL

  • Government of India is implementing since 1972-73 a Central Sector Scheme of Working Women‘s Hostel.
  • So far, 902 hostels have been sanctioned under the Scheme since inception.
  • The revised guidelines of the scheme have been issued in November, 2010.
  • Under the revised scheme financial assistance can be availed by state government agencies including Women Development Corporation.

UJJAWALA

  • Launched on 4th December, 2009, ‘Ujjawala’ is a Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking, with five specific components viz, Prevention, Rescue, Rehabilitation, Reintegration, Repatriation.

GENDER BUDGETING INITIATIVES

  • Gender Budgeting is a powerful tool for achieving gender mainstreaming so as to ensure that benefits of development reach women as much as men.
  • It is not an accounting exercise but an ongoing process of keeping a gender perspective in policy / programme formulation, its implementation and review.
  • To institutionalize gender budgeting in the country, the setting up of Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCS) in all Ministries / Departments was mandated by the Ministry of Finance in 2005.
  • The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) as the nodal agency for gender budgeting.

NATIONAL MISSION FOR EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN (NMEW)

  • NWEW, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), was launched by the government in 2010 with a view to empower women holistically.
  • The Mission aims to achieve empowerment of women by securing inter-sectoral convergence of schemes/programmes of different ministries/ departments of Government of India as well as state governments.
  • It has the mandate to strengthen and facilitate the process of coordinating all the women’s welfare and socio-economic development programmes.
  • The state level institution consists of the State Mission Authority (SMA) and State Resource Centre for Women (SRCW), which works in co-ordination with NMEW.
  • Some of the focus areas of the Mission are: declining child sex ratio; violence against women; child marriage; gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming; improving enrolment of the girl child under RTE; mainstreaming and inclusion of girls and women from underprivileged background and trafficking.
  • NMEW is the nodal agency for addressing the issue of declining child sex ratio.
  • A National Action Plan is now being drafted by the NMEW in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.
UPSC Prelims 2025 Notes