TOPIC : MISSION SHAKTI: SAFETY, SECURITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

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THE CONTEXT: The Government of India has launched ‘Mission Shakti’ – an integrated women empowerment programme as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women for implementation during the 15^th Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26. Ministry of Women and Child Development has also issued detailed guidelines for the ‘Mission Shakti’ scheme. This article explains the scheme in detail.

AN OVERVIEW OF MISSION SHAKTI

DESCRIPTION OF MISSION SHAKTI

• Mission Shakti is a scheme in mission mode aimed at strengthening interventions for women’s safety, security and empowerment.
• It seeks to realise women-led development by addressing issues affecting women on a life-cycle continuum basis.
• It focuses on proposing strategies for improving convergence across Ministries/Departments and at different levels of governance.
• It also seeks to promote greater participation and support of Panchayats and other local level governance bodies.

• Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes -‘ Sambal’and ‘Samarthya’.

SAMBAL SUBSCHEME

• In the Sambal sub-scheme, which is for the safety and security of women, the existing scheme of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (WHL), and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) have been included with modifications.
• A new component of the Nari Adalat – women collective has been added.

SAMARTHYA SUB SCHEME

• In the Samarthya sub-scheme, which is for the empowerment of women, existing schemes of Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh and Working Women Hostel have been included with modifications.
•  In addition, the existing schemes of the National Creche Scheme and PMMVY under the umbrella of ICDS have now been included in Samarthya.
• A new component of Gap Funding for Economic Empowerment has also been added to the Samarthya Scheme.
• The existing sub-schemes of Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK) and Mahila Police Volunteers (MPV) have been discontinued

THE RATIONALE FOR THE MISSION SHAKTI

The Central Government has enacted several legislations and implemented various schemes for safety, security and improving the status of women including their economic empowerment. However, despite various affirmative steps, various parameters indicate that a lot still needs to be done to improve the status of women in society. There were issues in the implementation of the schemes, and the full potential of schemes remained largely underutilized. The problems in implementation include various organs working in silos with inadequate linkage, lack of adequately trained staff, appropriate monitoring and convergence mechanisms, etc. Thus, the need of the hour is to have a concerted effort in a mission mode to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment – giving rise to Mission Shakti. Mission Shakti aims at strengthening interventions that not only improve women’s safety and empowerment but also tackle pervasive gender biases and discriminations. it seeks to make women economically empowered, exercising free choice over their minds and bodies in an atmosphere free from violence and threat.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE MISSION SHAKTI

• Provide an immediate and comprehensive continuum of care, support and assistance to women affected by violence and for those in distress;
• To put in place quality mechanisms for rescue, protection and rehabilitation of women in need of assistance and victims of crime and violence;
• To improve accessibility to various government services available for women at various levels;
• Making people aware of government schemes as well as legal provisions to fight social evils like dowry, domestic violence, Sexual Harassment at Workplace etc.
• Capacity building and training of functionaries under various schemes/ Legislations;
• Collaboration with Ministries/ Departments/ States/ UTs for convergence of policies, programmes/ schemes and to create an enabling environment for public-private partnership for safety and empowerment of women across sectors.
• Create awareness among the masses for inducing positive behavioural change toward women and girls.

SAMBAL– FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY OF WOMEN

WHAT IS SAMBAL?

• Mission Shakti has two components and SAMBAL is one of the components of Mission Shakti.

COMPONENTS UNDER SAMBAL

• The following are the components under SAMBAL:

Ø  One Stop Centre (OSC)

Ø  Women Helpline (WHL)

Ø  Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)

Ø  Nari Adalat(Read Ahead)

• While the first three are existing schemes, the last one is a new scheme.

OBJECTIVES OF SAMBAL

• The objectives of the sub-scheme are:

Ø  to improve accessibility and integrate all efforts and various government initiatives towards the safety and protection of women,

Ø  to secure their rights and entitlements on a comprehensive continuum of care

Ø  to support women affected by violence and in distress etc.

THE NARI ADALAT-A NEW SCHEME UNDER SAMBAL SUBSCHEME

AN ALTERNATE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM

• Provides women with an alternate Grievance Redressal Mechanism for resolving cases of petty nature (harassment, subversion, curtailment of rights or entitlements) faced by women at the Gram Panchayat level will be implemented in a phased manner.
• Nari Adalats or women collectives will be formed of committed and socially respected women chosen for that purpose.

AWARENESS GENERATION

• This platform will also be utilized for engaging with the public for awareness generation and getting feedback for improvement in the schemes and for effective public delivery of services

CONVERGENCE

• Nari Adalats will be provided logistic support through Gram Panchayats in convergence with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Rural Development, and Common Service Centres (CSCs) run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

PHASED IMPLEMENTATION

• In the first year, an awareness drive regarding legal, and constitutional rights and entitlements under various schemes/ programs will be undertaken.
• In the second year:

o   committed and socially respected women will be identified and extensively trained in all women-related laws and schemes.

o   a formal setup of women collectives will be made that will address the socio, economic, and cultural issues faced by the women of that area and will provide alternative resolutions to disputes by mediation.

SAMARTHYA – FOR EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

WHAT IS SAMARTHYA?

• Mission Shakti has two components and SAMARTHYA is one of the components of Mission Shakti.

COMPONENTS UNDER SAMARTHYA

• The components of the ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme are:

Ø  Ujjwala and Swadhar Greh( merged to form Shakti Sadan Scheme)

Ø  Working Women Hostel has been included with modifications

Ø  National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers

Ø  Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the umbrella of ICDS

Ø  Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW): Hub for Empowerment of Women aims to facilitate inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women both at the central, state and district level

•  A Gap Funding support for Economic Empowerment of women will also be provided on a need basis, subject to the conditions.

OBJECTIVES OF SAMARTHYA

• The objectives of this sub-scheme are:

Ø  Through reinforcement, improve access to various government services available to women at various levels.

Ø  Convergence for women’s development and empowerment

Ø  The scheme aims to empower women through social, cultural, political, and economic development.

SHAKTI SADAN

The Ministry of Women and Child Development was implementing the schemes of Swadhar Greh for Women in difficult circumstances and Ujjawala for the Prevention of Trafficking. Both the schemes were aimed at creating a safe and enabling environment for the women in distress including trafficked women and thereby giving them the strength to overcome their difficult circumstances and make a fresh start. For administrative purposes, Swadhar and Ujjawala Scheme have been merged, and these will be known as ‘Shakti Sadan’ – Integrated Relief and Rehabilitation Home. the Shakti Sadan will provide the following services to facilitate reintegration and repatriation of victims of trafficking and of commercial sexual exploitation: Setting up of Half-Way Home, Restoration to Families, Repatriation to country of origin etc.

GENDER BUDGETING (GB) UNDER SAMARTHYA SCHEME

Under the Samarthya component, Gender Budgeting has been included under the Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW).  The goal of Gender Budgeting is to enable government stakeholders at the central, state and district level to undertake gender budgeting through enhanced capacities, knowledge and skills. In order to achieve the objectives, implementing organisations/agencies will undertake the following activities:

• Develop training modules/packages, training material, teaching aids and manuals on gender budgeting.
• Organize workshops, seminars, training programmes, conferences etc to facilitate capacity building and training for various stakeholders
• Embed training on gender budgeting in the curriculum of administrative and government training institutes.
• Undertake seminars and consultations to ensure inter-state peer learning and sharing on gender budgeting initiatives and promote best practices.
• Conduct gender analysis of national and sub-national policies, legal frameworks, women-related legislation, government schemes and programs.
• Assess the adequacy of budget allocations to implement gender-responsive policies and programmes.
• To coordinate and monitor gender budgeting exercises of Gender Budgeting Cells and facilitate gender budgeting analysis.
• To conduct and promote gender-based impact assessments, the beneficiary needs assessments, beneficiary incidence analysis, and gender audit of schemes and legislations.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE MISSION SHAKTI

POSITIVE

• Mission Shakti is essentially an umbrella programme of the central government schemes related to women’s empowerment.
• The stated objective of this umbrella program is to bring convergence of existing women empowerment initiatives taken at the central level for better outcomes.
• Mission Shakti also provides for a few new components like Nari Adalat and also makes gender budgeting part and parcel of this program.

NEGATIVE

• However, the mission does not talk about any target or output to be achieved during its implementation period.
• Also, convergence does not mean adding up the existing programmes or tweaking their implementation strategies or adding some new components.
• Despite the idea of bottom-up planning and development, mission Shakti takes a top-down approach to women empowerment.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• Convergence of women empowerment programmes can lead to better targeting of intended segments and optimal resource allocation. Hence, Mission Shakti is the right step in that direction but its proper implementation will be the key.
• As problems of women are majorly social in nature, involvement of CSOs, SHGs, local bodies etc. in the implementation as active collaborators is necessary for a better outcome of the mission.
• Gender budgeting is a progressive step, but the progress of gender budgeting and gender analysis of schemes have been inadequate. Hence, constant handholding and nudging by the Ministry are needed.
• Convergence should not only be limited to the implementation stage but should extend to planning and formulation or else it will not be effective.
• A mid-term performance evaluation of the Mission needs to be undertaken by NITI Aayog so as to understand the challenges of implementation and thus improve the execution.

THE CONCLUSION: The Mission Shakti is inspired by the Constitutional commitment to Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy, India’s commitment to international treaties and conventions as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also seeks to reduce the care burden on women and increase female labour force participation by promoting skill development, capacity building, financial literacy, access to micro-credit etc. Although a step in the right direction,  for Mission Shakti to achieve its objectives,    a decentralized approach to women empowerment keeping the local bodies and alternative empowerment models like SHGs will be the key.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. What are the salient features of the Mission Shakti launched by the Union Government recently? Do you think that the Mission is a progressive step towards women’s empowerment? Argue.
2. “A  decentralized approach keeping the local bodies and alternative empowerment models like SHGs will be the key for women empowerment” Examine the statement in the context of Mission Shakti launched by the Union government recently.