Schemes for development of Women & Children

NEW DELHI:  The Ministry of Women and Child Development is running mainly three major schemes for the development of women and children in the country i.e., Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, ‘Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG)–‘Sabla’, Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY).  An amount of Rs. 16248 crore was spent under the ICDS for the year 2013-14 while an amount of Rs. 15129 crore has been spent during the current year as on 28/-2/2015 on ICDS. Similarly, an amount of Rs. 602 crore was spent on SABLA during the year 2013-14 and Rs. 618 crore during the current year as on 28/-2/2015.

Under the IGMSY Rs. 232 crore was spent in 2013-14 while Rs. 337 has been spent for the current year as on 28/02/2015.   The Ministry of Women and Child Development is administering ICDS which is a centrally sponsored scheme and is being implemented for holistic development of children below 6 years of age and pregnant women & lactating mothers, by providing a package of six services comprising (i) Supplementary nutrition (ii) Pre-school non-formal education (iii) Nutrition and health Education (iv) Immunization (v) Health check-up and (vi) Referral services through Anganwadi Centres at grassroots level.

The Sabla, is a Centrally-sponsored scheme which was introduced in the year 2010-11 on a pilot basis. It is being implemented presently in 205 districts from all the States/UTs. Sabla aims at all-round development of adolescent girls of 11-18 years by making them ‘self-reliant’. The scheme has two major components: Nutrition and Non Nutrition Component. While the nutrition component aims at improving the health & nutrition status of the adolescent girls the non-nutrition component addresses the developmental needs.

The Ministry of Women & Child Development is also implementing Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY), a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), 100% centrally sponsored scheme for pregnant and lactating (P & L) women in 53 selected districts across the country on pilot basis to improve their health & nutrition status by providing cash incentives upon fulfilment of certain health and nutrition conditions. The scheme addresses short term income support objective with long term objective of behavioral and attitudinal changes. It also attempts to partly compensate for wage loss to P&L women both prior to and after delivery of the child.  This information was given by the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in a written reply to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha today.