Women and Children: Laws, Institutions and Schemes

Why women and children need special protection

Women and children face specific vulnerabilities: sex-selective abortion, malnutrition, violence, child marriage, trafficking, unpaid care work and low participation in paid work. The Constitution allows the State to make special provisions for women and children (Article 15(3)) even though discrimination on the grounds of sex is otherwise prohibited.

Constitutional provisions for children:

• Article 21A: free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14.
• Article 24: prohibits employment of children under 14 in factories, mines and hazardous work.
• Article 39(e) and (f): protect children from abuse and ensure their healthy development.
• Article 45: early childhood care and education up to age six.
• Article 51A(k): parents' duty to provide education opportunities.

Constitutional provisions for women:

• Article 39(a) and (d): equal right to livelihood; equal pay for equal work.
• Article 42: maternity relief.
• Article 51A(e): duty to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
• Articles 243D and 243T: one-third reservation in local bodies (many states provide 50%).
• Article 330A and 332A, inserted by the 106th Amendment (2023): one-third of seats reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and assemblies. This takes effect after the delimitation that follows the first census held after the Amendment's commencement.

Demographic indicators

• Census 2011: sex ratio of 943 females per 1,000 males; child sex ratio (0–6) of 919, the lowest since independence.
• NFHS-5 (2019–21): overall sex ratio of 1,020, the first time above 1,000 in an NFHS round. Sex ratio at birth was 929.
• Stunting among under-fives in NFHS-5 was 35.5%. Anaemia among women aged 15–49 was 57%.

Laws protecting women

Laws protecting children

• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015: children in conflict with law and children in need of care. Children aged 16–18 accused of heinous offences may be tried as adults after a preliminary assessment by the Juvenile Justice Board. Child Welfare Committees function in each district. CARA regulates adoption. The 2021 amendment gave District Magistrates the power to issue adoption orders.
• POCSO Act 2012: gender-neutral protection of children under 18 from sexual offences, with child-friendly procedures and special courts. The 2019 amendment introduced the death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006: minimum age of 18 for women and 21 for men. Child marriages are voidable at the option of the child party. A 2021 bill to raise the age for women to 21 was referred to a committee and lapsed.
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act 2016: bans employment of children under 14 in all occupations, except helping in family enterprises outside school hours. Adolescents aged 14–18 are barred from hazardous work.
• RTE Act 2009: 25% of seats in private unaided schools are reserved for disadvantaged children; school-quality norms are prescribed.

Institutions

• National Commission for Women (1992), under the NCW Act 1990.
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (2007), under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005. It also monitors the RTE and POCSO Acts.
• Ministry of Women and Child Development (a separate ministry since 2006).
• One Stop Centres (Sakhi): integrated support for women affected by violence.
• Women helpline (181) and Childline (1098), the latter now integrated with the Emergency Response Support System (112).

Major schemes

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (2015): launched in Panipat (Haryana) to address the declining child sex ratio; operates through awareness and multi-sector action.
• Mission Shakti (2022): an umbrella scheme. *Sambal* covers safety (One Stop Centres, the helpline, BBBP, Nari Adalats). *Samarthya* covers empowerment (Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh, PM Matru Vandana Yojana, crèches).
• Mission Vatsalya: child protection services (Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, sponsorship and foster care).
• Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0: merges ICDS, Poshan Abhiyaan and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls. It covers supplementary nutrition, pre-school education and growth monitoring. The Poshan Tracker app records real-time data.
• PM Matru Vandana Yojana (2017): a cash incentive of ₹5,000 for the first child. Under Mission Shakti the incentive was extended to a second child if it is a girl.
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (2015): a savings scheme for the girl child.
• Ujjwala (PMUY, 2016): LPG connections in women's names for poor households, which improves health by reducing indoor air pollution.
• Nirbhaya Fund (2013): projects for women's safety.

Issues and debates

• Female labour force participation: still low, though it has been rising in recent PLFS rounds. The rise is mostly in self-employment in rural areas.
• Unpaid care work: according to the Time Use Survey 2019, women spend far more time on it than men.
• Implementation of the POSH Act: Internal Committees are not constituted in many institutions. In *Aureliano Fernandes* (2023) the Supreme Court directed compliance.
• Gender budgeting: a Gender Budget Statement has been published with the Union Budget since 2005–06.
• Marital rape exception: the exception in criminal law is being challenged in the Supreme Court. Report it as pending unless decided.

Practice: Mains question

*"Legal protection alone is insufficient to ensure gender justice." Discuss with reference to laws on violence against women. (150 words)*

Women in decision-making

Reservation in panchayats has brought more than a million women into elected local office. Research on this reservation finds shifts in public goods provision towards women's priorities, such as drinking water. The phenomenon of the "sarpanch pati" (husbands exercising power by proxy) remains a concern, which training and awareness programmes try to address. Women's representation in Parliament has risen slowly. The 106th Amendment will change this significantly once implemented.

Children: emerging issues

• Online safety: child sexual abuse material and cyberbullying. Platform obligations come under the IT Rules 2021 and the DPDP Act 2023, which requires verifiable parental consent before processing children's data.
• Child trafficking and missing children: the Track Child portal and anti-human trafficking units.
• Learning loss after pandemic school closures, which was documented by ASER 2022.