The Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Development took a series of measures in 2021, such as the introduction of a bill to raise the marriageable age of women to 21, the fight against malnutrition growing during the pandemic and the safety and rehabilitation of more than a lakh of children who have lost a parent to Covid.
Even though children remained less susceptible to Covid-19, around 1.32 lakh of them lost one of their parents and were at increased risk of being exploited and trafficked, which has happened. turned out to be a major concern for the department.
More than 9,800 children have been orphaned, 508 abandoned and 1.32 lakh lost either parent from April 2020 until December 7 of this year during the pandemic, the National Commission for the Disease said. protection of children’s rights (NCPCR).
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Recognizing the problem, the government earlier this year launched PM CARES for Children, a program that provides support to children orphaned during the pandemic.
NCPCR Chairman Priyank Kanoongo said in 2021 that they had worked on the social impact of Covid-19 on children.
“We have tried that the children lost in 2021 do not get lost and that their care is provided in accordance with the provisions of the juvenile justice law,” he said. PTI.
He said the biggest challenge for next year would be to solve the problem of street children.
“We are working for states to roll out our SOP on street children and we have the Supreme Court leadership in this regard and we will work accordingly. We will also work on child drug addiction, its action plan that we will implement and thirdly different juvenile justice actors act their appropriate guidance must be done and help the victims of POCSO – psychological, social and financial help is another area of intervention of the NCPCR. he declared.
Two key bills introduced this year were the Juvenile Justice (Child Care and Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
To tackle child marriage, the government introduced the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021, under which the age of marriage for women was raised from 18 to 21, sparking a mixed reaction from experts and activists.
A bill to set the uniform age of marriage for women and men at 21 has been presented to Lok Sabha. The bill has been referred to a standing committee.
The Juvenile Justice (Child Care and Protection) Amendment Bill of 2021, which sought to amend the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015, proposed to increase the role of district magistrates and others. district magistrates responsible for matters relating to child custody and adoption was passed in Parliament and entered into force.
The central government also has regulations in place to facilitate intercountry adoptions under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
Tackling growing malnutrition among women and children due to the pandemic has been another major concern for the ministry this year. The Poshan Tracker developed as a governance tool for real-time monitoring of nutritional outcomes has been implemented in different states. Anganwadis were trained to use it to enter nutritional data of children and nursing and pregnant women into the app.
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National Commission for Women (NCW) President Rekha Sharma said 2021 has seen many firsts for women across the world, from women’s extraordinary performances at the Olympics to the women of Indian descent reaching new heights in the world.
NCW has launched projects in different areas relating to women, including entrepreneurship, digital literacy, legal awareness, etc., she said.
“NCW has also launched a 24/7 helpline to provide assistance to women facing violence and sexual harassment. The new helpline aims to provide 24-hour emergency and non-emergency services to women affected by violence by putting them in contact with relevant authorities such as police, hospitals, District Legal Service Authority, psychological services , etc. and provide information on government programs related to women, ”she said.
On what to expect next year, Sharma said one of the main concerns would be to change people’s minds because “as we can see, despite several changes in policies and laws , and several new initiatives launched by the government, the state of mind of the people remains a major obstacle to the development and advancement of women.It is important that we ensure gender equality in the homes so that it is reflected in society ”.
This year, the WCD Ministry categorized all of its major programs under three umbrella programs – Mission Poshan 2.0 (strengthening nutritional content, delivery, awareness and outcomes), Mission Vatsalya (child protection services and child protection services) and Mission Shakti (policies and programs for the protection and empowerment of women) – for their better implementation.
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