Why in News?
- Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has sought more information from the government about Mission Shakti, an umbrella scheme for the safety, security, and empowerment of women.
- This comes after concerns were raised about a possible shortage of protection officers to handle domestic violence cases.
Raised Concerns Regarding Domestic Violence-
- As per the government document presented in court, 4.4 lakh cases of domestic assault are pending across 801 districts.
- While most of these districts have one-stop centres to help victims under Mission Shakti, it remains unclear how many of them actually have protection officers to effectively assist survivors.
- As per Section 8 of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the appointment of protection officers is compulsory.
- Protection officers, who should ideally be women, have a pivotal role under the law. They assist victims file complaints, provide Information to the police, give immediate protection and support, inform victims about their legal rights and support them through court proceedings.
About Mission Shakti-
- Mission Shakti’ is a scheme of Ministry of Women and Child Development aimed at reinforcing interventions for women safety, security and empowerment.
- It aims to realise the Government’s commitment for “women-led development‟ by addressing concerns affecting women on a life-cycle continuum basis and by making them equal partners in nation-building through convergence and citizen-ownership.
- Sub-Schemes- It 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.
- Sambhal- The components of ‘Sambal’ sub-scheme contain erstwhile schemes of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (WHL), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) with a new component of Nari Adalats – women’s collectives to encourage and facilitate alternative dispute resolution and gender justice in society and within families.
- Samarthya- The components of ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme contain erstwhile schemes of Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh and Working Women Hostel have been involved with modifications.
- Additionally, the current schemes of National Creche Scheme for children of working mothers and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana under umbrella ICDS have now been involved in Samarthya.
- A new component of Gap Funding for Economic Empowerment has also been included in the Samarthya Scheme.
Objectives of Mission Shakti-
- The key objective of Mission Shakti is to give to all women and girls including differently-abled, socially and economically marginalized, and vulnerable groups, in need of care and protection, with short-term and long-term services and information for their holistic development and empowerment.
- The components under Mission Shakti have the broad objectives of either protecting or assisting women who are victims of violence or in hard circumstances or empowering women-
- Provide immediate and continuous care, support, and assistance to women affected by violence and for those in grief.
- To put in place quality mechanisms for rescue, protection, and rehabilitation of women in need of support and victims of crime and violence.
- To enhance accessibility to various government services available for women at various levels.
- Making people aware of Government schemes and programs along with legal provisions to fight social evils such as dowry, domestic violence, Sexual Harassment at Workplace, promoting gender equality, etc.
- Capacity building and training of functionaries/ duty bearers under many schemes/ Legislations.
- Collaboration with partner Ministries/ Departments/ States/ UTs for convergence of policies, programs/ schemes and to build an enabling environment for public-private partnership for safety and empowerment of women across sectors.
- Generate awareness among the masses for inducing positive behavioral change toward women and girls.
- To stop gender-biased sex selective elimination, to ensure survival, protection, education, and development of the girl child.
- The scheme will give financial support for service delivery and the hiring of technical/ other needed manpower for the initiatives for immediate and long-term care and support to the targeted women.