Youngest in Cabinet, Irani steps into Maneka’s shoes

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 31

Smriti Irani, the youngest minister in the Modi Cabinet, was today appointed India’s fourth Women and Child Development Minister. 

After defeating one Gandhi in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Irani is now getting ready to step into the shoes of another. 

The 43-year-old TV actor-turned-politician emerged the giant slayer this time by trouncing Congress chief and three-time Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi by over 55,000 votes. 

Today she replaced Maneka Gandhi, the seniormost Lok Sabha MP, as Women and Child Development Minister. Irani was the youngest minister in the first Cabinet of PM Modi in 2014 when she was trusted with the plum portfolio of Human Resource Development.

She could not keep the sector for long and was shifted out after a two-year term owning to a series of controversies. Irani’s second portfolio was Information and Broadcasting, which she had to leave in May 2018. PM Modi finally gave her textiles portfolio, a charge she continued to keep.

In fresh portfolio allocations today, PM let Irani retain textiles and also put her in charge of WCD, a ministry that was independently set up only on January 30, 2006. 

From 1985 until 2006, WCD was a mere department under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Past WCD ministers were Renuka Chaudhary and Krishna Tirath of Congress during Congress led UPA regime and Maneka Gandhi during the NDA regime from 2014 to 2019.

WCD schemes impact 70 per cent of India’s women and child population. Maneka during her term led radical changes to various laws related to the sector —  a new Juvenile Justice Act was passed to allow trial of juvenile perpetrators of heinous crimes as adults; the POCSO law was amended in the last session of Parliament to prescribe death penalty in matters of aggravated sexual assault on children. The Ministry also foresees NDA’s flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign which seeks to correct massive imbalances in India’s child sex ratio at birth.

Child sex ratio at birth in the 2011 Census was 919 girls per 1,000 boys as against 927 in the previous Census. Irani’s challenge would be to improve ongoing schemes and better their delivery. She is expected to assume charge on Monday.

Meanwhile, Debosree Chowdhury, BJP general secretary, West Bengal, who defeated CPM's sitting MP in Raiganj Mohammad Salim, today took charge as MoS of WCD Ministry.