Schemes for upliftment of women and child welfare

 We are heading towards a mission of bringing an inclusive society. It enables the path of sustainable economic and social development of the nation and promotes peace and harmony within society that we all coexist. For that awareness and schemes are needed to be generated for creating a progressive environment that broadens the mindset of the people. Women and child development are one of the major focus areas of creating a progressive, as well as an inclusive society. It can be achieved by giving attention, rights, and privileges to women and children by every individual in society. The social ripples, which is an initiative towards sustainable development promotes that the United Nations sustainable development goal 5- gender equality and sustainable development goal 8- decent work and economic growth strongly supports women and child development. They also advocate that schemes related to the upliftment of the women and child welfare should be applied on a war footing level.  

Importance of women and child development

The development of a nation refers to the development of every individual living in that nation. Most of the Indian population is comprised of women and children. Hence, they become the core pillars of national development, and it is necessary to consider their development when we think of national development. Achieving women and child development will help us to open the doors of sustainable development not only for the present generations but also for future generations. 

In most parts of our country, many of the women and children are seen as unprivileged from their fundamental rights of education and good nutrition. Moreover, they are facing problems such as violence and harassment. Most of the children from the families that are below the poverty line, are forced to do unsafe Labor works and are facing health problems such as malnutrition. Women and children are also seen to be deprived of good health and sanitation.

Schemes for the upliftment of women and child welfare

The ministry of women and child development is of the vision to ‘empower women living with dignity and contributing as equal partners in development in an environment free from violence and discrimination and create well-nurtured children with full opportunities for growth and development in a safe and protective environment.’

This vision promotes the idea that if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation.

The women and child development department was set up in the year 1985 and was a full-fledged ministry department from 31st January 2006. The schemes defined and proposed by the ministry were promoted, under the mission statement 'promoting safety, social and economic empowerment of women, care and development of children through cross-cutting policies, programs, and schemes.' 

The schemes developed and promoted were based on the following topics:

1. The national mission on empowerment

2. The integrated child protection scheme

3. Empowerment of adolescent girls

4. Conditional maternity benefits 

5. Implementation of 

• Immortal traffic in women and girl act

• The indecent representation of women

• The dowry prohibition

• The commission of sati

At the social ripples, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini, who is with her mission towards sustainable development, promotes the need for an inclusive society and advocates that it is essential to ensure that women and girls are independent socially, economically, and are politically empowered. It is a sensitive issue and needs joint efforts are needed to achieve the goal of an inclusive society.

what are the major importace of rural development ?

 Mahatma Gandhi always stated the soul of India lives in villages. Rural areas are blessed with several important natural resources. Rural development and empowerment are some of the important areas of the sustainable development process. Sustainable development in rural areas majorly focuses on the growth and development of the people living in a rural area by promoting the measures of effective usage of natural resources. It also includes the protection and enhancement of natural biodiversity. At the social ripples, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini with her mission towards sustainable development advocates that most of the natural diversity that includes agriculture and forestry should be the main focus of rural development and empowerment, whereas other areas of development such as education and good health and well-being sanitation, etc. also should be empowered.

Rural development

Rural development refers to the process of development that emphasizes improving the quality of life of people by providing the ways to live their life sustainably by promoting measures that will help them to have economic stability in their life.

Despite various measures and schemes promoted by government and organizations, it is seen the people living in rural areas and remote areas are far away from civilization. They are still living with the orthodox living standards, and economic life is still below the poverty line. Unemployment in rural areas is a concern for development. Hence, rural development and empowerment need a strategic path of development that accelerates production and productivity, better socio-economic activity, aspiration, balance in social and economic development.

The farmers in the rural areas are still not introduced to the innovative and dynamic methods of agriculture. It is because they are far away from civilization and unaware of newer technologies. The infrastructure of rural areas is not allowing them or making it difficult for them to connect to the latest technology and innovations. Introduction to dynamic, vibrant, and sustainable agriculture can help them to be economically stable. Rural development and empowerment have a maximum emphasis on agriculture as the world's population is increasing, and the need for food is also increasing day by day.

Agricultural activities are dependent on the environment and climate changes. When we are talking about rural development and empowerment, we need to have shifted attention towards various areas of growth and development along with agriculture. The other areas of focus are as follows:

• Public health safety and sanitation measures

• Education 

• Promoting poverty eradication methods 

• Female empowerment and gender diversity

• Employment opportunities

• Encouraging entrepreneurship among small-scale farmers and indigenous people 

• Infrastructure development like irrigation and electricity, etc.

• Promote sustainable forest management

All the above-stated measures will improve the economic well being of the people in rural areas. Affordable or free education is a critical part of rural development. It will promote employability. If education will not be affordable, then children will be forced to do agricultural work and will not have equal opportunities to get employment. At the social ripples, they advocate that rural development and empowerment foster improving quality of life in rural areas covering economic, cultural, social, and political components of development. Along with a complete understanding of rural development, it is equally important to understand that when we are in the process of achieving rural development and empowerment goals, care is needed to be taken that the face of the rural area does not change. Also, measures should be taken by the urban areas to learn to live an environmentally friendly life.

What are the various types of approaches to rural development?

 Rural development and empowerment are some of the important sustainable development goals by the United Nations. The sustainable development goals majorly focus on protecting and enhancing the natural diversity of the planet, as preserving our mother nature will help the human species to create a better and sustainable world for future generations. Natural diversity that means natural resources such as agriculture and forests are extensively part of rural areas. Agriculture is the primary occupation of the two-third population of the rural areas on which their livelihoods are dependent. The rate and quality of agriculture are degrading day by day, and it is affecting the living of the people in human areas as they are still deprived of sustainable living, infrastructure, health, and sanitation as they are living below the poverty line.

At the social ripples, which is an initiative towards sustainable development, they advocate that sustainable rural development and empowerment fosters improving the quality of life in rural areas that covers the following components of the rural development. 

• Environmental conditions

• Ecological settings

• Technology

• Self-reliance

• Infrastructure

• Law and order

• Education and training

• Distributive justice

Hence, the concept of rural development and empowerment refers to initiative and measures taken for enhancing the quality of life and financial well-being of people in rural areas and significantly improve the village economy. The above components are the areas of rural development and empowerment.

Approaches to rural development

There are various experimental rural development and empowerment approaches used by the government of India. The various approaches are focused to accelerate the growth and development of rural communities. First, the area-wise development and needs of rural development are considered and according to them. Secondly, available natural resources present in that rural areas measures towards the development are planned. Rural development in the history of India is a primary goal of government. It took planning and a perfect approach to attain various goals and objectives of sustainable development. The approaches of rural development have been stated in the five years plan and are being stated as:

• The first five-year plan was the methodological approach of the community development program.

• The second five-year plan was based on the sectorial growth that aimed at achieving economic growth and development by promoting industrialization.

• The third five-year plan was all around agricultural development and was promoted with the help of programs such as intensive agricultural area development program, high yield varieties program

• And so on

These were some of the programs and approaches that were experimented and the government of India is doing well. To achieve rural development and empowerment, it is important to make maximum use of human and material resources. Hence, the approaches to rural development can be comprehensively stated as follows:

Endogenous development-

This approach to rural development and empowerment focuses on local development by considering the areas of development that include human rights advocacy, human development, and qualitative progress of human standards, based on conservation of the environment and sustainable social development. In addition to promoting ways of employment and conservation of natural resources, the endogenous development approach also focuses on ways to promote connection and co-operation between the cities and local economies that will lead to a rise in the quality of economic and social well-being of the rural population.  

Participatory development-

The development of a nation refers to the development of each human and natural resources. In the case of rural development and empowerment, the social ripples advocate that the individuals of the rural areas need to recognize that they are the implementers of the developmental programs. The idea of the participatory development approach promotes that when the individuals will participate actively in the development process then only it will be productive. Also, it says that local independence and sustainable development are improved by the effective use of local natural resources. 

At the social ripples, Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini with her mission towards sustainable development believes that rural development and empowerment refer to come up development activities by effective use of natural resources, and if the availability of natural resources is limited, then they should be used adequately and strategically so that they can be used sustainably by the future generations.