AC approves renaming Directorates of Social Welfare Department

SRINAGAR — The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved the change of nomenclature of Directorates in the Social Welfare Department.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K and Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.

The decision will rename the Mission Directorate, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS); Mission Directorate, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS); and State Resource Centre for Women (SRCW) as Directorate Mission Poshan; Directorate Mission Vatsalya; and Directorate Mission Shakti, respectively.

The decision will streamline the implementation of various social welfare schemes in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, besides, bringing them in consonance with the new umbrella schemes of the Government of India. Accordingly, various schemes of the Ministry of Women & Child Development, GoI will be re-distributed among the three Directorates.

Now, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Scheme for Adolescent Girls, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and National Crèche Scheme will be implemented by the Directorate of Poshan Abhiyan, whereas, the Integrated Child Protection Services (ICPS) and services under the Juvenile Justice Act will be implemented by the Directorate of Mission Vatsalya.

Similarly, the Directorate of Mission Shakti will be implementing the schemes including One Stop Centre/Women’s Helpline (181), Swadhar Greh, Widow Homes, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and other women welfare schemes for women empowerment with a special focus on gender budgeting, research, and assistance to working women.

Earlier, the directorates were named after a single scheme which was dissonant with their scope of functionality. The new names signify the whole gamut of activities/schemes being implemented by respective directorates and are better suited to their operations which will make their implementation and monitoring easier.