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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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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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.