Ministry
Ministry of Women and Child Development
The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the Government of India's apex institution for the welfare and empowerment of women and children. It runs the Integrated Child Development Services — through roughly 14 lakh anganwadi centres, one of the world's largest outreach programmes — and delivers its work through three umbrella missions: Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 for nutrition, Mission Shakti for women's safety and empowerment, and Mission Vatsalya for child protection. It is the policy home for gender budgeting and the ministry associated with India's women's-empowerment agenda.
Updated
- Headquarters
- Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi
- Budget 2025-26
- ~₹26,890 crore
- Umbrella schemes
- 3 (Saksham Anganwadi & Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya)
- Anganwadi network
- ~14 lakh centres (ICDS, among world's largest outreach programmes)
Role
The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the Union government’s apex body for the welfare and empowerment of women and children. Much of what it does is delivered by state governments and frontline anganwadi workers, so the ministry works mainly through nationally-designed, centrally-sponsored schemes: it funds and sets standards for the Integrated Child Development Services, runs the POSHAN nutrition mission, and administers maternity benefits, women’s-safety services and child-protection systems. Since 2021-22 its programmes have been consolidated into three umbrella missions — Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 for nutrition, Mission Shakti for women’s safety and empowerment, and Mission Vatsalya for children in need of care and protection.
Beyond scheme delivery, the ministry is the policy home for gender budgeting and the institution most associated with India’s women’s-empowerment agenda. It oversees or works alongside statutory and specialised bodies including the National Commission for Women, the Central Adoption Resource Authority, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development. While the constitutional and electoral machinery of the women’s-reservation law sits with the Law Ministry and the Election Commission, the WCD ministry is the standing seat of policy for the women-and-child portfolio the reservation is meant to strengthen.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
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Central Social Welfare Board set up
An early institutional root of India's women-and-child welfare architecture, funding voluntary organisations working with women and children.
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Integrated Child Development Services launched
ICDS began delivering supplementary nutrition, immunisation and pre-school education through anganwadi centres, later growing into one of the world's largest outreach programmes.
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Department of Women and Child Development created
A dedicated department was carved out within the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
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National Commission for Women constituted
The statutory body to review the constitutional and legal safeguards for women was set up under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990.
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Upgraded to an independent ministry
The department was elevated to a full-fledged Ministry of Women and Child Development, giving women's and children's affairs a standalone cabinet portfolio.
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National Commission for Protection of Child Rights constituted
The ministry set up the NCPCR as a statutory body under Section 3 of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, giving the child-rights portfolio a standing review and complaints body alongside the National Commission for Women.
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Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana begins as a maternity-benefit pilot
The ministry launched a conditional cash maternity benefit on a pilot basis in 53 districts, paying about 5,000 rupees in instalments to pregnant and lactating women aged 19 and above. It became the institutional base of the ministry's later national maternity-benefit scheme.
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POCSO Act comes into force, adding a criminal-law brief to the ministry
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 commenced on 14 November 2012 after presidential assent on 19 June 2012, making the ministry the administrative home of a dedicated child sexual-offences statute with special courts and child-friendly procedure.
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Workplace sexual-harassment law commences under the ministry
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (Act 14 of 2013) came into force on 9 December 2013, extending the ministry's remit from welfare delivery into regulating employer conduct across public and private workplaces.
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Beti Bachao Beti Padhao launched in 100 low sex-ratio districts
The scheme began at Panipat, Haryana as a tri-ministerial effort with the health and education ministries, starting in 100 districts with a low child sex ratio. The ministry later reported the sex ratio at birth rising from 918 in 2014-15 to 930 in 2023-24.
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Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 replaces the 2000 Act
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 commenced on 15 January 2016, superseding the 2000 Act and allowing Juvenile Justice Boards to decide whether a person aged 16 to 18 accused of a heinous offence is tried as an adult.
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Maternity benefit taken national as Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
The ministry renamed and scaled the 2010 pilot into a nationwide scheme covering all districts, paying cash maternity benefit for the first live birth and giving effect to the maternity-benefit provision of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
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POCSO amended to raise minimum sentences and add capital punishment
The 2019 amendment raised the minimum punishment for penetrative sexual assault from seven to ten years, set twenty years where the victim is under 16, and introduced the death penalty for aggravated offences.
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Schemes reorganised into three umbrella missions
The Cabinet clubbed the ministry's programmes into Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 (nutrition), Mission Shakti (women) and Mission Vatsalya (children) for the 2021-22 to 2025-26 period, absorbing ICDS, POSHAN Abhiyaan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and the child-protection scheme.
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Ministry introduces bill to raise women's marriage age to 21; it later lapses
The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to raise the minimum marriage age for women from 18 to 21 and extend the annulment window from two to five years. It was referred to a standing committee and lapsed on the dissolution of the 17th Lok Sabha in June 2024.
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Adoption orders move from civil courts to District Magistrates
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021 commenced on 1 September 2022, transferring the power to issue adoption orders from civil courts to district magistrates — a structural change to how the ministry's adoption system, run through the Central Adoption Resource Authority, clears cases.
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Revamped SHe-Box portal launched for sexual-harassment complaints
The ministry relaunched the Sexual Harassment electronic Box through a nationwide webcast from Delhi, providing a single central channel for registering workplace sexual-harassment complaints under the 2013 Act.
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Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign and child-marriage reporting portal launched
The ministry launched a national child-marriage-free India campaign together with the portal stopchildmarriage.wcd.gov.in, intended to support states and union territories in reporting and preventing child marriage.
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Poshan Tracker reaches 10 crore beneficiaries as anganwadi upgrade begins
The ministry reported the Poshan Tracker carrying real-time data on over 10 crore pregnant women, lactating mothers and children, with 1.7 lakh anganwadi centres approved for conversion into Saksham Anganwadis and 15,728 upgraded as of December 2024.
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Mission Shakti delivery: 802 One Stop Centres and 16,418 crore rupees in maternity benefit
The ministry reported 802 One Stop Centres functioning in 785 districts having assisted 10.43 lakh women, the women's helpline resolving 1.99 crore calls, and 16,418.12 crore rupees disbursed to 3.69 crore beneficiaries under the maternity-benefit scheme as of December 2024.
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Union Budget 2025-26 allocation of ~₹26,890 crore
The ministry was allocated about ₹26,890 crore, a 16% rise over the revised estimates of 2024-25, with Poshan 2.0 taking ~82%, Mission Shakti ~12% and Mission Vatsalya ~6%.
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Women's reservation Act brought into force
The Ministry of Law and Justice notified 16 April 2026 as the date the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — commenced. The one-third reservation itself stays inoperative pending the first census taken after that date and a subsequent delimitation.
Frequently asked
- What is Ministry of Women and Child Development?
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development is the Government of India's apex institution for the welfare and empowerment of women and children. It runs the Integrated Child Development Services — through roughly 14 lakh anganwadi centres, one of the world's largest outreach programmes — and delivers its work through three umbrella missions: Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 for nutrition, Mission Shakti for women's safety and empowerment, and Mission Vatsalya for child protection. It is the policy home for gender budgeting and the ministry associated with India's women's-empowerment agenda.
- When was Ministry of Women and Child Development established?
- Ministry of Women and Child Development was established 2006.
- What does Ministry of Women and Child Development do?
- Its remit covers Child nutrition and early-childhood care via the Integrated Child Development Services and anganwadi network, Women's safety, security and empowerment (Mission Shakti), Child protection and adoption (Mission Vatsalya; oversight of the Central Adoption Resource Authority), Maternity benefits (Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana), Gender budgeting and coordination of women-focused welfare across ministries, Administration of laws and bodies on women and children (National Commission for Women; NIPCCD).
- What is the latest on Ministry of Women and Child Development?
- As of 2026-07-06: Women's reservation Act brought into force. The Ministry of Law and Justice notified 16 April 2026 as the date the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 — the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — commenced. The one-third reservation itself stays inoperative pending the first census taken after that date and a subsequent delimitation.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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Canonical ministry home: schemes, organisations, directory, notifications.
wcd.gov.in/
- Annual Reports reports
Ministry annual report archive.
wcd.gov.in/documents/annual-report
- WCD Dashboard data
Ministry's scheme/performance dashboard landing page.
wcd.gov.in/home-dashboard
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PIB release consolidating the ministry's 2024 scheme and programme record.
www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2098874
- National Commission for Women department
Statutory commission under the ministry; complaints, reports, advisories.
www.ncw.gov.in/
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Statutory child-rights commission under the ministry.
ncpcr.gov.in/public/
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Bare Act plus rules/notifications for the ministry's principal child-protection law.
www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2079