Usha Kiran Yojana (Madhya Pradesh)

What is Usha Kiran Yojana in Madhya Pradesh?

Usha Kiran Yojana is the name under which Madhya Pradesh ran a programme directed at violence and exploitation of women. The name is still widely searched, particularly in the Hindi form "उषा किरण योजना", and readers usually reach it looking for one thing: where a woman facing violence in Madhya Pradesh can get help.

The honest position has to be stated first. Usha Kiran Yojana does not appear in the current published scheme list of the Madhya Pradesh Women and Child Development Department. The department's own site at mpwcdmis.gov.in lists six state schemes: Ladli Behna Yojana, Ladli Laxmi Yojana, Lado Abhiyan, Shaurya Dal, Mukhya Mantri Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojana, and the Chief Minister's Community Leadership Capacity Development Programme; alongside three centrally sponsored missions: Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, Mission Vatsalya and Mission Shakti.

No official page currently publishes eligibility rules, a benefit amount, an application form or a helpline specific to Usha Kiran Yojana. Nothing further about it should be assumed, and any figure you see quoted for it on a private website should be treated as unverified.

What follows is what a woman in Madhya Pradesh can actually access today for the purpose Usha Kiran was meant to serve.

Who can and cannot get this support?

You can get this support if:

• You are a woman or adolescent girl living in Madhya Pradesh facing violence, threat, harassment, trafficking, exploitation or discrimination.
• You need immediate safety, counselling, medical help or legal aid, regardless of your income, caste or marital status.
• You have dependent children who need to be sheltered with you.

Who cannot apply / who is not eligible:

• Men cannot apply. These services are for women and girls.
• Residents of other states cannot ordinarily be admitted to a Madhya Pradesh Shakti Sadan and should approach the One Stop Centre or helpline in their own state.
• Applicants seeking a cash grant under the name "Usha Kiran Yojana" will not find one, because no such published cash benefit exists.

There is no income limit, no BPL requirement and no documentation threshold for emergency help.

What are the working routes today?

Women Helpline 181. Madhya Pradesh operates 181 as its women's helpline under Mission Shakti. It runs around the clock, and is the single number to remember. Use 112 for an immediate police emergency.

One Stop Centre (Sakhi Kendra). One Stop Centres bring police assistance, medical examination, legal aid, psycho-social counselling and short-term shelter under a single roof at district level, so a woman in crisis is not sent from one office to another.

Shakti Sadan. Shakti Sadan is the shelter component. According to the department, it provides shelter, nutrition, clothing, health facilities, legal advice and other necessary services along with rehabilitation, and covers destitute women, women released from prison, women affected by natural disasters, survivors of violence and women in exploitative situations. Madhya Pradesh operates 14 Shakti Sadan facilities across 13 districts, including Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Ujjain. Shakti Sadan was established under Mission Shakti in July 2022, replacing the earlier Swadhar Greh scheme, and is funded 60:40 between the centre and the state.

Shaurya Dal. Shaurya Dal is a Madhya Pradesh state scheme that forms volunteer groups at village and ward level to act against violence against women and social evils in their own community. Shaurya Dal is the closest current equivalent to the awareness and community-mobilisation side of what Usha Kiran was meant to do.

Lado Abhiyan. Lado Abhiyan is Madhya Pradesh's child marriage prevention campaign, launched in 2013, the first such state campaign in India. It won the Prime Minister's Award for administrative excellence in 2014 and the CAPAM award for citizen-focused innovation in 2016. Departmental figures record child marriage falling from 42 per cent in 2012-13 to 30 per cent in 2015-16.

Mukhya Mantri Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojana. For rehabilitation after the immediate crisis, this scheme provides free skill training to women in distress, including survivors of sexual violence, trafficking survivors, acid attack survivors, released prisoners and widowed or deserted women. Applications go through the District Programme Officer.

How to get help — step by step

1. Call 181, the Madhya Pradesh Women Helpline, or 112 if you are in immediate danger. No documents are needed to call.
2. Reach the nearest One Stop Centre (Sakhi Kendra) at your district headquarters. Ask 181 to arrange the referral and, if needed, transport.
3. Ask for the district Protection Officer if the violence is domestic, and have a Domestic Incident Report recorded under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
4. Request Shakti Sadan admission if you cannot safely return home.
5. Apply through the District Programme Officer for Mukhya Mantri Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojana once you are safe, so that free training and a route to independent earning are set up.

Where to complain if you are refused help

• Women Helpline, Madhya Pradesh: 181
• Police emergency: 112
• National Commission for Women helpline: 7827170170
• District Programme Officer, Women and Child Development, for complaints against a One Stop Centre, Shakti Sadan or Protection Officer
• Directorate of Women and Child Development, Bhopal, via mpwcdmis.gov.in
• CM Helpline, Madhya Pradesh, for anything not settled at district level

Every service listed here is free. If a website or an agent offers to register you for a payment under "Usha Kiran Yojana" for a fee, do not pay, and report it on the CM Helpline.