Abstract
Women’s empowerment has become a central objective of public policy in India, especially in the context of safety, dignity, access to services, and participation in development. In this policy environment, Mission Shakti has emerged as an important umbrella initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development aimed at integrating women’s safety, security, and empowerment within a single framework. The scheme is built around two broad sub-schemes, namely Sambal and Samarthya. Sambal focuses on safety and protection through components such as One Stop Centres, Women Helpline, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and Nari Adalat, while Samarthya addresses empowerment through services such as PMMVY, Palna, Sakhi Niwas, Shakti Sadan, and SANKALP: Hub for Empowerment of Women. The present paper examines Mission Shakti as a policy initiative by analyzing its objectives, structure, rationale, institutional design, and likely contribution to women’s welfare in India. The paper is based on secondary sources, including official scheme guidelines, government portals, policy documents, and selected academic studies. It argues that Mission Shakti is significant because it moves beyond fragmented interventions and adopts a life-cycle and convergence-based approach. At the same time, the success of the scheme depends on implementation capacity, awareness, coordination, accessibility, and monitoring at the grassroots level. The study concludes that Mission Shakti represents an important step toward women-led development, but its long-term impact will depend on stronger institutional delivery, local accountability, and continuous policy support.