Ministry of Women and Child Development

Branch of Government of India
Ministry of Women and Child Development
Incumbent Annpurna Devi since 11 June 2024
Agency overview
Formed	2006
Jurisdiction	Government of India
Headquarters	Ministry of Women and Child Development Shastri Bhawan, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road New Delhi
Annual budget	₹25,449 crore (US$3.0 billion) (2023-24 est.)[1]
Ministers responsible	Annpurna Devi, Cabinet Minister Savitri Thakur, Minister of State
Website	wcd.gov.in

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, a branch of the Government of India, is an apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to women and child development in India. The current minister for the Ministry of Women and Child Development is Annpurna Devi having held the portfolio since 2024.

The Department of Women and Child Development was set up in the year 1985 as a part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to give the much needed impetus to the holistic development of women and children. With effect from 30 January 2006, the Department has been upgraded to a Ministry.^[2]

The broad mandate of Ministry is to have holistic development of Women and Children. As a nodal Ministry for the advancement of women and children, the Ministry formulates plans, policies and programmes; enacts/ amends legislation, guides and coordinates the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental organisations working in the field of Women and Child Development. Besides, playing its nodal role, the Ministry implements certain innovative programmes for women and children. These programmes cover welfare and support services, training for employment and income generation, awareness generation and gender sensitization. These programmes play a supplementary and complementary role to the other general developmental programmes in the sectors of health, education, rural development etc. All these efforts are directed to ensure that women are empowered both economically and socially and thus become equal partners in national development along with men.^[2]

For holistic into development of the child, the Ministry has been implementing the world's largest outreach programme of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) providing a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check-up and referral services, pre-school non-formal education. There is effective coordination and monitoring of various sectoral programmes. Most of the programmes of the Ministry are run through non-governmental organisations. Efforts are made to have more effective involvement of NGOs. The major policy initiatives undertaken by the Ministry in into the recent past include universalisation of ICDS and Kishori Shakti Yojana, launching a nutrition programme for adolescent girls, establishment of the Commission for protection of Child Rights and enactment of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.^[2]

The ministry also gives the annual Stree Shakti Puraskar in six categories, namely Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Kannagi Award, Mata Jijabai Award, Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award, Rani Lakshmi Bai Award and Rani Rudramma Devi (for both men & women).^[3]

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is headed by Smt. Savitri Thakur, Minister; Mr. Indevar Pandey is the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The activities of the Ministry are undertaken through seven bureaux. The Ministry has 6 autonomous organizations working under its aegis.

• National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)
• National Commission for Women (NCW)
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
• Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)

• Integrated Child Protection Scheme
• Welfare of the family.
• References from the United Nations National Nutrition Policy, national Plan of Action for Nutrition and National Nutrition Mission.
• Charitable and religious endowments pertaining to subjects allocated to this Department
• Promotion and development of voluntary effort on the subjects allocated to this Department
• Implementation of -
  • Immoral Traffic in Women and Girl Act. 1956 (as amended up to 1986) .
  • The Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, 1986 (60 of 1986).
  • The Dowry Prohibition Act. 1961 (28 of 1961)
  • The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (3 of 1988), excluding the administration of criminal justice in regard to offences under these Acts.
• Implementation of the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Food (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992 (41 of 1992).
• Coordination of activities of Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE)
• Planning, Research, Evaluation, Monitoring, Project Formulations, Statistics and Training relating to the welfare and development of women and children, including development of gender sensitive data base.
• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
• Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB)
• National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)
• Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality.
  • National Commission for Women
  • The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
  • Probation of Juvenile offenders.
  • Issues relating to adoption, Central Adoption Resource Agency and Child Help Line (Childline).
  • The Children Act, 1960 (60 of 1960).
  • The Child Marriage – Restraint Act, 1929 (19 of 1929).^[2]

• Note: MoS, I/C – Minister of State (Independent Charge)

No.	Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Renuka Chowdhury (born 1954) MP for Khammam (MoS, I/C)	30 January 2006	22 May 2009	3 years, 113 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
2			Krishna Tirath (born 1955) MP for North West Delhi (MoS, I/C)	28 May 2009	26 May 2014	4 years, 363 days		Manmohan II
3			Maneka Gandhi (born 1956) MP for Pilibhit	27 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 4 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
4			Smriti Irani (born 1976) MP for Amethi	31 May 2019	9 June 2024	5 years, 9 days		Modi II
5			Annpurna Devi (born 1970) MP for Kodarma	10 June 2024	Incumbent	200 days		Modi III

No.	Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Krishna Raj (born 1967) MP for Shahjahanpur	5 July 2016	3 September 2016	60 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
2			Virendra Kumar Khatik (born 1954) MP for Tikamgarh	3 September 2017	30 May 2019	1 year, 269 days
3			Debasree Chaudhuri (born 1971) MP for Raiganj	31 May 2019	7 July 2021	2 years, 37 days		Modi II
4			Mahendra Munjapara (born 1968) MP for Surendranagar	7 July 2021	9 June 2024	2 years, 338 days
5			Savitri Thakur (born 1978) MP for Dhar	10 June 2024	Incumbent	200 days		Modi III

• Integrated Child Protection Scheme
• Odisha State Child Protection Society
• The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY)

• Official website