Women, child development important pillar in governance structure, says Irani

Chandigarh, April 2

Poshan tracker with its large sample size helps improve the quality of the assessment and is an effective tool in monitoring women and child development schemes, said Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani during the inaugural session of the zonal conference organised today with states and stakeholders in Chandigarh.

During the session, she requested stakeholders to use “Mission Shakti” scheme implementation guidelines in their assessment. Stating women and child development as an important pillar in the governance structure, the Minister said coordination among departments was vital in the implementation of the schemes by the ministry.

The zonal conference was organised with the objective of sensitising state governments/UT Administrations to three umbrella missions – Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya – of the Ministry to facilitate proper implementation of the schemes over the next five years.

Later talking to mediapersons, the Minister talked only about the schemes and did not take questions other than related to her ministry.

Representatives from the Departments of Women and Child Development from states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Delhi and other organisations expressed their views on various schemes related to women and child development during the consultation session with the states/UT.

The Ministry will be holding zonal conferences with States/UTs in Bengaluru (April 4), Guwahati (April 10), Mumbai (April 12) and Bhubaneswar (April 13).