Mission Shakti

What is Mission Shakti?

Mission Shakti is an integrated women empowerment programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, launched as an umbrella scheme for the safety, security and empowerment of women. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Mission Shakti covers the 15th Finance Commission period 2021-22 to 2025-26, carries a total outlay of Rs 20,989 crore including a central share of Rs 15,761 crore, and its revised norms became applicable from 1 April 2022.

The important thing to understand first is that Mission Shakti is not a single benefit you sign up for. Mission Shakti is an administrative umbrella that gathered together a long list of earlier standalone schemes: One Stop Centre, Women Helpline, Ujjwala, Swadhar Greh, Working Women Hostel, the maternity benefit scheme and others, restructured them, and grouped them under two sub-schemes. Anyone searching for "how to apply for Mission Shakti" is really looking for one of these components.

The two sub-schemes

• Sambal, safety and security of women. Components: One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (181), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and the newly added Nari Adalat, women's collectives that provide an alternative dispute resolution forum at the gram panchayat level.
• Samarthya, empowerment of women. Components: Shakti Sadan (a merged home for women in destitution and survivors of trafficking, replacing Ujjwala and Swadhar Greh), Sakhi Niwas (working women hostels), Palna (creches), Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) maternity benefit, and the national, state and district Hubs for Empowerment of Women.

What does Mission Shakti actually deliver?

Mission Shakti is designed around what the Ministry describes as a life-cycle continuum. The idea that a woman's needs change with age and circumstance, and that the state's response should follow her rather than sit in separate silos. In practice the scheme delivers three kinds of things.

Emergency and crisis response. The 24-hour toll-free Women Helpline 181 takes calls from any woman in distress, or from someone calling on her behalf, and links her to the police, hospitals, legal services authorities and the nearest One Stop Centre. One Stop Centres provide medical aid, police assistance, legal aid and advice, psycho-social counselling and temporary shelter under one roof.

Longer-term institutional support. Shakti Sadan houses women who have no family support or who have survived trafficking. Sakhi Niwas provides safe and affordable hostel accommodation for working women, with day-care for their children where feasible. Palna runs creches so that mothers in paid work have somewhere safe to leave young children.

Cash support and awareness. PMMVY pays maternity benefit to eligible pregnant and lactating mothers. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao funds behaviour-change communication aimed at the declining child sex ratio and at girls' education.

Who is eligible for Mission Shakti services?

Because Mission Shakti is an umbrella, eligibility is set component by component.

You can use Mission Shakti services if:

• You are a woman or girl affected by violence or in distress, in a private or public space. The One Stop Centre and 181 helpline are open to you regardless of age, marital status, income, caste or religion, and regardless of whether you have filed a police complaint.
• You are a working woman needing safe accommodation, for Sakhi Niwas.
• You are a woman in destitution or a survivor of trafficking, for Shakti Sadan.
• You are a pregnant or lactating mother meeting the PMMVY criteria, for the maternity benefit component.
• You are a working mother needing day-care, for a Palna creche.

You cannot apply to Mission Shakti itself:

• Individuals cannot apply for a personal cash benefit "under Mission Shakti" as a whole. There is no such application, no such form and no such payment. Anyone promising to enrol you in Mission Shakti for a fee is running a fraud.
• Men are not eligible for the women-specific service components, though a man may of course call 181 or 112 on behalf of a woman in danger.
• Organisations wanting to run a component, an NGO seeking to operate a Shakti Sadan or a Sakhi Niwas, for example — cannot apply directly to the central ministry. Proposals go through the State Government and the District Magistrate, who forward recommended proposals upward.

How to apply for Mission Shakti components

1. Identify which component you actually need; crisis help, shelter, hostel, creche or maternity benefit. There is no umbrella application.
2. For immediate danger or violence, dial 181 (Women Helpline) or 112 (Emergency Response Support System). The helpline is free, works round the clock and does not ask for documents before helping you.
3. For crisis support in person, walk into your district's One Stop Centre (Sakhi). You do not need an appointment, a referral or a police complaint. See our separate guide to the One Stop Centre for what happens inside.
4. For maternity benefit, register on pmmvy.wcd.gov.in or through your Anganwadi worker or ASHA, with your Aadhaar, Mother and Child Protection card and an Aadhaar-seeded bank account.
5. For a working women hostel, shelter home or creche, approach the District Programme Officer or District Women and Child Development Officer. These are admissions, not online applications, and the district office maintains the list of functioning facilities.
6. For institutional participation. An NGO or state agency seeking funds to run a component, submit the proposal to the State Government, which appraises it and forwards it to the Ministry of Women and Child Development through the Mission Shakti portal.

How does Mission Shakti relate to Mission Vatsalya and Saksham Anganwadi?

The Ministry of Women and Child Development runs three umbrella schemes and they are routinely confused with each other.

• Mission Shakti, women's safety, security and empowerment. Sambal and Samarthya sub-schemes.
• Mission Vatsalya: child protection and child welfare: Child Welfare Committees, Child Care Institutions, sponsorship, foster care, aftercare, adoption, and Child Helpline 1098.
• Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0: nutrition, early childhood care and the Anganwadi network.

A One Stop Centre sits under Mission Shakti's Sambal sub-scheme; a sponsorship payment for a vulnerable child sits under Mission Vatsalya. If you are looking for support for a child rather than a woman, Mission Vatsalya is the scheme to read about.

Coverage and progress

According to Press Information Bureau releases from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, 812 One Stop Centres were operational as of 31 January 2025, having assisted over 10.80 lakh women since the OSC scheme began on 1 April 2015. By 31 December 2025 the reported figures had risen to 926 One Stop Centres and over 13.37 lakh women assisted. The Women Helpline 181 operates in states and union territories across the country and is progressively being integrated with the ERSS-112 emergency number.

Help and grievance redressal

• Women Helpline: 181, toll-free, 24 hours
• Emergency Response Support System: 112
• Child Helpline: 1098
• National Cyber Crime reporting helpline: 1930
• NALSA legal services helpline: 15100
• Tele-MANAS mental health helpline: 14416
• Mission Shakti portal technical support: techsupport-shakti@gov.in, 011-23388074
• Sexual harassment at the workplace: file online through SHe-Box at shebox.wcd.gov.in

Every service listed here is free to the woman using it. No One Stop Centre, helpline operator or shelter home may charge a fee, and no genuine official will ask you for money to register a case or to admit you to a facility.