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Current Affairs 2023

Mission Shakti - UPSC Current Affairs

Mission Shakti is an integrated women empowerment program of the Union Government aimed at providing safety, security, and empowerment for women through schemes such as One Stop Centres, Women Helpline, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Nari Adalats for alternative dispute resolution. It also aims to improve accessibility to government services and promote skill development, capacity building, and financial literacy for women.

Jan 25, 2023

2 min read

Mission Shakti is an integrated women empowerment program launched by the Union Government during the 15th Finance Commission period (2021-2022 to 2025-2026). The program aims to provide a comprehensive continuum of care, support, and assistance to women affected by violence, and for those in distress. It is designed as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security, and empowerment of women, and comprises of two main components: Sambal and Samarthya.

Sambal is focused on the safety and security of women, and includes schemes such as One Stop Centres, Women Helpline, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and a new component of Nari Adalats - women's collectives to promote and facilitate alternative dispute resolution and gender justice in society and within families.

Samarthya is focused on the empowerment of women, and includes schemes such as Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh, and Working Women Hostel, with modifications. In addition, the existing schemes of National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (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 services and activities involved in Mission Shakti include emergency/immediate services and short-term care, institutional care for long-term support, SakhiNiwas or Working Women Hostel, and behavior change communication for dignity and prevention of crime and violence against women. The program also aims to improve accessibility to various government services available for women at various levels, make people aware about government schemes and programs, as well as legal provisions to fight social evils like dowry, domestic violence, and sexual harassment at the workplace and to promote gender equality.

The objectives of Mission Shakti are to prevent gender-biased sex-selective elimination, ensure survival, protection, education, and development of the girl child, reduce the care burden on women, and increase female labor force participation by promoting skill development, capacity building, financial literacy, access to microcredit, etc. The program seeks collaboration with partner Ministries/Departments/States/UTs for convergence of policies, programs/schemes and to create an enabling environment for public-private partnership for safety and empowerment of women across sectors.