Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani has informed that The Government has decided to implement ‘Mission Shakti’, an integrated women empowerment programme as umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women during the 15th Finance Commission period. Mission Shakti seeks to realise the Government’s vision for ‘women-led development’ by addressing issues affecting women across the life-cycle continuum, while making them equal partners in nation-building through convergence across Ministries/ Departments and at different levels of governance, ensuring greater participation and support of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and other local self governance bodies, and Jan Sahabhagita, and also strengthening digital infrastructure for last mile tracking of service delivery.
Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes – ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’. While the “Sambal” sub-scheme is for safety and security of women, the “Samarthya” sub-scheme is for empowerment of women.
Under the ‘Sambal’ sub-scheme, the existing schemes of One Stop Centres (OSC), Women Helplines (181-WHL), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) have been subsumed and a new component of Nari Adalats – women’s collectives to promote and facilitate alternative dispute resolution platform and gender justice in society and within families, has been added. The existing scheme of Mahila Police Volunteers has been discontinued.
Under the ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme, existing schemes of Ujjawala, Swadhar Greh and Working Women Hostel have been subsumed. Further, the ongoing Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) and National Creche Scheme for the Children of Working Mothers (both presently part of ICDS) have also been brought under the ‘Samarthya’ sub scheme, as these schemes seek to empower women by providing wage compensation, care and nutritional benefits to working women and their children. The ‘National Hub for Empowerment of Women’ (NHEW) component of the sub-scheme, subsuming the existing Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme, has been envisaged for ensuring convergence and monitoring, geo-tagging of institutions, training, gender budgeting, research and publication, critical gap funding, etc.
This umbrella scheme has been approved for implementation during the period of 15th Finance Commission, i.e. from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a total outlay of ₹20,989 crores including Central Share of ₹ 15,761 crores and State Share of ₹ 5228 crores.