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An Assessment Of The National Gender Campaign For DAY-NRLM

दीनदयाल अंत्योदय योजना-राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण आजीविका मिशन (DAY-NRLM) ने अपनी लैंगिक हस्तक्षेपों के माध्यम से लैंगिक समानता के मुद्दों को संबोधित करने के लिए ठोस प्रयास किए हैं, जिसमें विशेष रूप से महिलाओं और लड़कियों के खिलाफ हिंसा (GBV) को समाप्त करना शामिल है। GBV, विशेष रूप से महिलाओं और लड़कियों के खिलाफ हिंसा, व्यक्तिगत विकास, कल्याण और गरिमापूर्ण जीवन के सबसे बड़े अवरोधों में से एक है। DAY-NRLM इस सामाजिक बुराई को व्यक्तिगत और सामाजिक विकास की राह में एक प्रमुख बाधा के रूप में पहचानता है और इसे समाप्त करने के लिए आवश्यक कदम उठाने का उद्देश्य रखता है।

हाशिये पर स्थित समुदायों और विशेष रूप से महिलाओं को उनके द्वारा अनुभव की जाने वाली विभिन्न प्रकार की हिंसा को पहचानने और उसे संबोधित करने के लिए सशक्त बनाने के उद्देश्य से, DAY-NRLM ने 25 नवंबर से 23 दिसंबर 2022 तक एक महीने लंबे अभियान “नई चेतना – पहल बदलाव की” की शुरुआत की। यह अभियान महिलाओं और लड़कियों के खिलाफ हिंसा के उन्मूलन के अंतर्राष्ट्रीय दिवस के साथ संगत था, और इसे ग्रामीण विकास के माननीय केंद्रीय मंत्री श्री गिरिराज सिंह द्वारा लॉन्च किया गया था। यह वार्षिक अभियान का प्रारंभ है, जिसमें प्रत्येक वर्ष लैंगिक समानता से संबंधित विशिष्ट विषयों पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया जाएगा। पहले वर्ष का विषय “समानता और लिंग आधारित हिंसा का अंत” था।

इस अभियान की पहुंच, प्रासंगिकता और प्रभावशीलता का आकलन करने के लिए एक मूल्यांकन किया गया था, जिसमें अभियान की सफलता को प्रभावित करने वाले सक्षम और अवरोधक कारकों को उजागर किया गया। यह रिपोर्ट गुणात्मक और मात्रात्मक डेटा दोनों के आधार पर तैयार की गई है, जो DAY-NRLM के प्रबंधन सूचना प्रणाली (MIS) से प्राप्त है और विभिन्न प्रशासनिक स्तरों—राज्य, जिला, ब्लॉक, क्लस्टर-स्तरीय महासंघ (CLF) और ग्राम संगठनों (VO) में शामिल हितधारकों द्वारा साझा की गई जानकारी को समाहित करती है। इसके अलावा, एक राष्ट्रीय ऑनलाइन सर्वेक्षण जिसमें 24 राज्यों के लगभग 5,000 CLF से 20,000 से अधिक स्वयं सहायता समूह (SHG) सदस्यों ने भाग लिया, इस व्यापक मूल्यांकन का हिस्सा है।

An Assessment Of The National Gender Campaign For DAY-NRLM

The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is committed to addressing gender equality through its gender interventions, with a focus on eliminating gender-based violence (GBV). GBV, particularly violence against women and girls, remains one of the most significant barriers to personal growth, well-being, and living a life of dignity. Recognising this issue as a major obstacle to individual and societal development, DAY-NRLM has undertaken strategic efforts to combat GBV.

To empower marginalised communities, especially women, in recognising and addressing the different forms of violence they face, DAY-NRLM launched the “Nayi Chetna – Pahal Badlav Ki” campaign from 25th November to 23rd December 2022. This month-long initiative, aligned with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was inaugurated by the Honourable Union Minister for Rural Development, Shri Giriraj Singh. The campaign marks the beginning of an annual event focused on gender equity, with each year addressing a specific theme. The theme for Year 1 was “Equity and Ending Gender-Based Violence.”

An assessment was conducted to evaluate the campaign’s reach, relevance, and effectiveness, highlighting the factors that enabled or constrained its success. The findings, drawn from both qualitative and quantitative data, offer valuable insights for improving future campaigns. The report incorporates information from DAY-NRLM’s Management Information System (MIS) and feedback from stakeholders across various administrative levels—state, district, block, Cluster-Level Federations (CLFs), and Village Organisations (VOs). Additionally, a national online survey, with over 20,000 Self-Help Group (SHG) members participating from nearly 5,000 CLFs across 24 states, contributed to the comprehensive assessment.

Designing Gender Responsive Apprenticeship Programs

The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and the National Apprentice Training Scheme (NATS) aim to enhance skill development and boost employment opportunities in India. However, the overwhelming male dominance in these programs highlights a significant gender gap in their implementation. To address this, several measures are recommended to promote greater female participation.

Key recommendations include collecting gender-disaggregated data to understand women’s choices, incentivising employers to hire more women apprentices, and conducting awareness campaigns targeted at women. Additionally, creating gender-sensitive infrastructure and addressing social norms that limit women’s participation are essential steps toward inclusivity. Integrating NAPS with the upcoming DESHStack portal will further enhance women’s access to apprenticeship opportunities and improve their transition into the workforce.

Implementing these steps will create a more gender-responsive apprenticeship system, fostering economic growth and empowerment for women.

Engendering Early Childhood Development in India

Introduction

Over the past decade, there has been a growing global focus on early childhood development. Quality childcare can provide children with lifelong health, education, and social development benefits. Women have traditionally been responsible for childcare, with little help managing it alongside their work, paid or unpaid. The responsibility of unpaid care work disproportionately impacts women’s access to education, employment, leisure, health, and well-being. It also reduces the availability of opportunities for remunerative employment.  Women are frequently compelled to work in informal, unstable environments or quit entirely due to caregiving responsibilities. This unequal burden impacts women from all walks of life but disproportionately affects impoverished and underprivileged women. Policymakers in India need to address the unpaid care work women are obligated to perform. Establishing childcare centres, or creches, is a crucial policy tool for achieving this objective. This blog will look at state-sponsored creche policies and programmes and assess how well they work to help women find and retain jobs. 

In India, care policies and legislation have long been influenced by the concept of “Gendered Familialism,” which places the responsibility of care work on women based on familial relationships (Neeta and Palriwala, 2011). Unfortunately, this strategy limits the pool of potential carers and care recipients, fails to acknowledge care as a shared public responsibility, and does not take into account the fact that women frequently require assistance managing both their paid work and care obligations, particularly with regard to childcare. Over the years, many legislative and policy initiatives have sought to address this mindset by attempting to redistribute care provision to employers and the government. These include early statutory provision of childcare in the formal sector, crèches provided at worksite in the informal sector under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the universalization of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and the PALNA scheme, which mandates making crèches accessible for both employed and unemployed mothers (Chigateri, 2017). Although these government programmes and legal frameworks have touched on the need for childcare benefits to increase women’s labour force participation by providing daycare centres and maternity benefits, the execution of such mandates can be improved.

Tracing the History of Child Care Services 

Childcare services have been recommended for working women in many government and non – government policy documents (Chigateri, 2017).  For working mothers, ‘crèches, nurseries, and labor-saving devices’ were recommended in the 1974 report “Towards Equality” by the Committee on the Status of Women.  The “Shramshakti” report from 1988 was another significant report, which acknowledged the right of working women to have access to child care. It also suggested childcare facilities for women working in the informal sector. Childcare services for women in both the formal and informal sectors were also advised in other policy documents.  The 1988 National Perspective Plan for Women suggested that laws requiring companies to provide crèches for a certain percentage of female employees be changed to gender-neutral policies. Additionally, the 2001 National Policy for the Empowerment of Women recommended that childcare facilities be available in workplaces, educational institutions, and residences for the elderly and disabled.

Despite the strong emphasis on centre-based childcare services in several policy documents, progress towards implementing these recommendations has been slow in reality. Most legislation on the subject has only applied to women employed in the organized sector, leaving out a significant portion of the female workforce. Legislations such as the Factories Act 1948, Plantation Labour Act 1951, Mines Act 1952, Beedi and Cigar Workers’ Act 1966, Contract Labour Act 1970, Inter-state Migrant Workers Act 1980, and Building and Construction Workers Act 1996 mandate crèche facilities in the organized sector and workplaces with a relatively large number of women employees. Efforts to expand childcare options for women workers have been made in both organized and unorganized sectors through the Maternity Benefits Act (2017) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2008). The Maternity Benefits Act 1961, amended in March 2017, presents a mixed picture of state involvement in childcare provision (Chigateri, 2017)[1]. Although the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act extends the duration of wage replacement during maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, it also mandates establishments with 50 or more employees to provide creche facilities within a prescribed distance. The high threshold and the exclusion of women workers outside the organised sector drew criticism from women’s organisations.

In the Draft Rules on Social Security Code (SSC), which the Ministry of Labour and Employment published in November 2020, the condition of more than fifty employees in the Maternity Benefit Act (Amended), 2017, was changed to an eligibility condition of fifty “women employees.”, disregarding the needs of young children of all employees, both men and women workers (Mishra and Sachdeva, 2021)[2].

MGNREGA is the only act in the country that gives legislative support for childcare provisioning in the unorganized sector, recognizing both the work-related rights of women and their right to provide adequate nutrition and care for their infants. However, creches under MGNREGA have performed unsatisfactorily.

Another modality through which childcare provision was introduced in India was the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), launched by the Government of India in the 1970s. The programme was designed to promote early childhood development (ECD) in children under the age of six. It was the first government initiative to address young children’s nutritional, health, and early learning needs while also enhancing mothers’ capacity to meet those needs (Mishra and Sachdeva, 2021)  [3]. The program focused on six comprehensive services: supplementary nutrition and growth monitoring, immunization, health check-ups, health and nutrition education, referral services, and non-formal pre-school education. This program was to be coordinated through Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) by Anganwadi workers and helpers. Over time, the program expanded to cover all blocks in the country.  Children under the age of six now have a universal right to these services due to the Supreme Court’s order for the quality universalization of the ICDS. The ICDS has played a significant role in tackling malnutrition amongst children and mothers in the country. However, implementation of the programme has largely been reliant on mothers of children, perpetuating the notion that childcare is solely their responsibility and creating difficulties for employed women accessing services.

Furthermore, the pick-up and drop timings of AWCs frequently conflict with the mothers’ employment hours, necessitating the need for dependable childcare services. Also, the AWCs are only open for four hours, which is unhelpful for working women who put in much longer hours. In 2012, the Restructured ICDS document did recommend the conversion of 5 percent of AWCs in the country to Anganwadi-cum-crèches (AWCCs) but this has only been implemented in a limited number of AWCs.

The Scheme of Assistance Crèches for Working/Ailing Mothers was another way the government introduced childcare services for women. It was initiated in 1974 to offer creche services to the young children of female labourers living below the poverty line. The Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme (RGNCS) for Children of Working Mothers was created in 2006 as a merger of two previous crèche schemes: the aforementioned scheme and the National Crèche Fund Scheme established in 1995. The government runs the scheme in partnership with private sector and non-government organizations to target remote and underprivileged areas. It was later renamed the National Creche Scheme (NCS). Though important, this scheme restricted Creche facilities’ provision to working or ailing mothers.

Status of current schemes

As part of the recently approved Mission Shakti, the National Creche Scheme has been updated and renamed as Palna Scheme to provide creche services for children (6 months to 6 years old) of working mothers as well as to enhance the nutritional and physical well-being of kids.  The scheme will offer working women’s children a safe and secure environment for their nutritional, physical, and cognitive development and inspire women to pursue their career opportunities.  The Scheme provides Creche facilities for children of all women, whether employed or not. This denotes a progressive shift in the government’s perspective. This programme addresses the urgent need for high-quality childcare facilities. During the 15th Finance Commission, the government intends to establish an additional 17,000 Anganwadi cum creches under Palna.  Despite its carefully considered formulation, the secret to its success will be in how well it is put into practice.  The programme’s effectiveness will be ensured by increasing the network of childcare facilities and allocating sufficient financial resources in that direction. It is critical that the planning, designing, execution and monitoring of these schemes and programmes actively adopt gender intentionality in their approach to ensure that care work ceases to pose a challenge to women’s social and economic well-being.

Author: This blog is authored by Divya Singh, Research Manager at IWWAGE

[1] Palriwala, R. and Neetha, N., 2011. Stratified familialism: the care regime in India through the lens of childcare. Development and Change, 42(4), pp.1049-1078.

[2] Chigateri, S., 2017. ”Pathways to Accessible, Affordable and Gender-Responsive Childcare Provision for Children Under Six-India Case Studies.

[3] ibid

[4] Committee on the Status of Women. 1974. ‘Towards Equality’. New Delhi: Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India

[5] Government of India, 1988. Shramshakti: Report of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector

[6] ibid

[7] Mishra, S and Shubhika Sachdeva in Agrawal, N., 2021. Her Right To Equality: From Promise to Power. Penguin Random House India Private Limited.

[8] ibid

Strengthening the Skilling Ecosystem: Leveraging the Potential of the Private Sector in India

India faces a unique challenge with one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates and a large informal workforce. As nearly 50 million young women remain neither in education nor employment, it is crucial to bridge the gap between available jobs and the skills required by the market. While the government has led the charge in skilling efforts, the private sector holds immense potential to play a pivotal role in this ecosystem.
Despite efforts through initiatives like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), only 36% of companies in India currently conduct in-house training. Barriers such as societal norms, mobility restrictions, and lack of awareness particularly hinder women’s participation in vocational training. To address these gaps, there is a need for stronger private sector engagement in skill development and workforce placement.

By mobilising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, creating local infrastructure, and offering financial and non-financial support for entrepreneurship, the private sector can foster inclusive growth. Additionally, businesses can leverage their networks to connect disadvantaged groups with market opportunities, offering targeted placement support to enhance women’s participation in the workforce.

Unlocking India’s latent talent through collaboration between government and private enterprises will help build a more skilled, diverse, and employable workforce, ensuring sustainable economic growth and increased female labour force participation.

Indian Skilling Ecosystem: Potential and Gaps

The Indian skilling ecosystem has seen significant investment to position the country as a global skill capital. However, despite these efforts, India continues to face challenges in female labour force participation (FLFP). Evidence shows that over half of women outside the workforce express a desire to gain skills for employment, yet they face multiple barriers such as limited access to training, gender-normative course selections, and poor job retention.

This brief explores the gaps in India’s skilling ecosystem, highlighting the need for gender-inclusive training programmes, better data collection on women’s participation, and addressing structural barriers that impede women’s progress from training to employment. Key recommendations include creating gender-responsive infrastructure, offering tailored curricula for women, and improving post-placement support to ensure higher retention in the workforce.

By addressing these challenges, India can maximise the potential of skilling programmes to enhance women’s economic empowerment and drive inclusive economic growth.

Research Process Documentation

The Gender Justice Program (GJP), implemented by ANANDI in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MPSRLM), aimed to empower rural women in the Sheopur and Karhal blocks of Madhya Pradesh from 2019 to 2021. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the SWAYAM initiative, with IWWAGE as the coordination and learning partner, GJP worked to ensure women’s access to rights and entitlements by strengthening community institutions like Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) and Village Organisations (VOs).

The program’s strategy focused on mainstreaming gender into MPSRLM systems, creating gender-responsive spaces within community institutions, and training a cadre of women leaders known as “Samta Sakhis”. These women facilitated social action on critical issues such as domestic violence, land rights, pensions, and healthcare, while also fostering connections between rural women and local governance.

Through capacity-building initiatives and continued support, the Samta Sakhis grew into confident community leaders. Their work during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond has been instrumental in securing entitlements for rural communities, showcasing their dedication to bringing lasting social change