Public Issues

Access to justice for women and girls — and the removal of structural and legal barriers to it — is an active subject of both Indian policy and multilateral negotiation. It covers the availability of immediate support after violence, the functioning of legal systems, and the elimination of discriminatory laws and practices.

The priority theme of the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in March 2026, was ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers.

• One Stop Centres — integrated support for women affected by violence, under the Sambal sub-vertical of Mission Shakti.
• Women Helpline 181 — a single national number for information and emergency response.
• Nari Adalat — a component providing for alternative dispute resolution at village level.
• Shakti Sadan — shelter provision, subsuming the earlier Ujjwala and Swadhar Greh schemes.

Addressed the High-Level Meeting on “Violence against Women and Girls” at CSW-70 and delivered India’s national intervention during the General Discussion, March 2026.

Inspected the One Stop Centre at Chingdong Leikai, Jiribam district, Manipur, on 7 November 2025.

Reviewed the Sambal component of Mission Shakti with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, January 2025.

Press Information Bureau releases of 7 March 2026, 13 March 2026, 7 November 2025 and 18 January 2025; Ministry of Women and Child Development scheme documentation.

Undernutrition in the first years of life has lasting consequences for cognitive development and adult productivity. India measures it through three distinct indicators — stunting, wasting and underweight — which move on different timescales and require different responses.

The fifth National Family Health Survey, covering 2019–21, recorded 35.5 per cent of Indian children under five as stunted, 19.3 per cent as wasted and 32.1 per cent as underweight at the national level. For Madhya Pradesh the same round recorded 36 per cent stunted and 19 per cent wasted. These are 2019–21 figures and are not current-year figures.

• Mission Saksham Anganwadi & POSHAN 2.0 — the integrated nutrition support programme, covering children under six, pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls in covered districts.
• Poshan Tracker — the monitoring system rolled out on 1 March 2021, used for last-mile tracking and for dynamic identification of stunting, wasting and underweight prevalence.
• Anganwadi Centres — 14,02,248 registered on Poshan Tracker as on 17 September 2025, with 9,14,75,640 eligible beneficiaries registered.

Field inspection of the Sethi Nagar Anganwadi Centre, Indore, 17 June 2025, reviewing service delivery and interacting with Anganwadi workers and beneficiaries.

Briefed on nutrition tracking via Poshan Tracker, home rations, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and services for pregnant and lactating mothers at the Kadamtala Anganwadi Centre, Jiribam, 7 November 2025.

Reviewed Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 implementation with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, January 2025.

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–21; Press Information Bureau and Ministry of Women and Child Development releases as dated above. Full provenance for every figure appears on the Nutrition & Wellbeing page.

Children in need of care and protection depend on a statutory system operating at district level — Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards and District Child Protection Units — together with institutional care where family-based care is not available.

Vacancies in Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile Justice Boards were recorded as an implementation challenge raised in a ministerial review with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in January 2025, alongside Anganwadi Centre infrastructure and other operational bottlenecks.

• Mission Vatsalya — subsuming the Integrated Child Protection Scheme, supporting children in difficult circumstances universally across the country.
• Child Care Institutions — providing age-appropriate education, vocational training, recreation, health care and counselling.
• Statutory district bodies — Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile Justice Boards under the juvenile justice framework.

Visited the Lairembi Sanglen and Gulamchat Child Care Institutions in Jiribam district, Manipur, on 7 November 2025, reviewing facilities and interacting with the children. The release records that she directed the District Child Protection Officer to ensure regular health check-ups, nutritious meals and yoga sessions, and enquired about breakfast menus, sports activities and school attendance.

Reviewed Mission Vatsalya implementation, including CWC and JJB vacancies, with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in January 2025, and met the Chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Press Information Bureau, Imphal, 7 November 2025; Press Information Bureau, Itanagar, 18 January 2025; Ministry of Women and Child Development scheme documentation.

Access to institutional credit, marketable skills and independent income determines the degree of economic agency available to rural women. In districts with limited formal employment, collective savings and credit models are the principal route to that access.

Official institutional sources record that Smt. Savitri Thakur “has organized job-oriented training programmes for tribal women, created self-help groups, and enabled their financial empowerment, significantly contributing to their socio-economic upliftment”.

At CSW-70 in March 2026 she stated that the Union Budget 2025–26 allocated approximately ₹5.01 lakh crore towards gender budgeting, an increase of over 8 per cent on the previous year.

• Samarthya — the empowerment sub-vertical of Mission Shakti, including Palna crèches and Sakhi Niwas working women’s hostels, which address the childcare and housing constraints on women’s employment.
• Self-Help Group–bank linkage — the long-standing national mechanism connecting women’s savings groups to institutional credit.
• Gender budgeting — identification, across ministries, of allocations benefiting women.

Shared India’s experience with Self-Help Groups, Direct Benefit Transfer, PM POSHAN school meals and digital public infrastructure with the Vice-Minister of Social Development of Guatemala, New York, 5 February 2026.

Addressed women’s economic empowerment and Sustainable Development Goal 5 at CSW-70, referring to an IBSA-supported floriculture project in Jordan intended to support women-led micro-enterprises and provide training in floriculture and business skills.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development ministerial profiles; Press Information Bureau releases of 5 February 2026 and 13 March 2026.

Dhar is a Scheduled Tribe majority district. Development policy in such districts turns on the interaction between livelihood, education access, service delivery to dispersed rural settlements, and the reserved-representation provisions of the Constitution.

At the 2011 Census of India, Dhar district recorded a population of 21,85,793, of whom 55.94 per cent — 12,22,814 persons — belonged to Scheduled Tribes. Of that Scheduled Tribe population, 11,42,263 lived in rural areas. District literacy was recorded at 60.57 per cent. The Lok Sabha constituency is reserved for Scheduled Tribes and comprises eight assembly segments.

• Panchayati raj — the three-tier rural local government structure through which district development planning is carried out, with reserved seats and chairperson positions for Scheduled Tribes and for women.
• National women and child programmes — Saksham Anganwadi & POSHAN 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya reach the district through the State government.

Chairperson of the Zila Panchayat, Dhar district, 2004–2009 — the district tier of rural local self-government.

Elected Member of Parliament for Dhar in 2014 and again in 2024.

Recorded organisation of job-oriented training programmes and self-help groups for tribal women.

Census of India 2011; Election Commission of India constituency results and delimitation; Lok Sabha member record; NCPCR and SPNIWCD ministerial profiles. No itemised list of constituency projects, sanctions or completions is presented, because no verified source for one has been identified.

Educational attainment interacts directly with the Ministry’s other priorities: school retention affects age at marriage, maternal health outcomes and household nutrition. Early childhood education at the Anganwadi Centre is the first formal step in that sequence.

Dhar district recorded a literacy rate of 60.57 per cent at the 2011 Census of India. Early Childhood Care and Education for children aged three to six is one of the three primary sub-verticals of Mission Poshan 2.0.

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao — addressing the declining child sex ratio and girls’ education, under the Sambal sub-vertical of Mission Shakti.
• Early Childhood Care and Education — pre-school education delivered at Anganwadi Centres for ages three to six.
• PM POSHAN — the school meals programme, referenced by the Minister in her Guatemala bilateral as part of India’s social protection experience.

At Lalpani Primary School, Jiribam, on 7 November 2025, the release records that she stressed the importance of lifelong learning and equal opportunities for girls, and enquired about the children’s aspirations, during the nationwide commemoration of 150 years of Vande Mataram.

At the National Institute of Technology, Sikkim, on 12 May 2026, discussions covered education, skill development and youth empowerment.

Census of India 2011; Press Information Bureau, Imphal, 7 November 2025; Press Information Bureau, Gangtok, 12 May 2026; Ministry of Women and Child Development scheme documentation.