Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Government of India, Smt. Annapurna Devi, virtually addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Women’s Forum 2026 today, actively reaffirming India’s strategic commitment to fostering women-led development across the region. Speaking from New Delhi, the Minister emphasized that women are no longer merely passive beneficiaries of developmental growth, but are instead functioning as the primary drivers of India's long-term Viksit Bharat (Developed India) 2047 vision.
The theme of the high-level forum focused on regional cooperation, economic integration, and scaling healthcare access for women across Central and South Asia. Smt. Annapurna Devi presented India's open-source framework for grassroots financial empowerment as a blueprint for partner nations seeking to unlock female economic potential.
Addressing the delegates, Smt. Annapurna Devi stated:
"True nation-building requires shifting our paradigm from women's development to women-led development. Today in India, our women are breaking structural barriers, leading grassroots financial networks, and driving regional economic resilience. India stands ready to share its policy architecture, digital toolkits, and micro-entrepreneurship templates to support and deepen cooperation with our SCO partner countries."
Key Policy Deliverables & Institutional Progress
The Minister outlined a multi-layered approach to female empowerment implemented through comprehensive legislative, economic, and institutional frameworks:
1. Grassroots Economic Mobilization
India has successfully orchestrated a major financial inclusion movement through its Self-Help Group (SHG) network. Nearly 100 million women are currently organized into more than nine million community-led SHGs. Notably, over 30 million of these rural women entrepreneurs have successfully crossed the economic threshold to become 'Lakhpati Didis'—maintaining a sustainable annual household income of at least ₹100,000 (one lakh rupees).
2. Lifecycle Support Systems (Mission Shakti & Mission Poshan 2.0)
To safeguard these economic gains, the government has institutionalized a lifecycle approach to welfare and security:
Mission Shakti: A unified umbrella scheme providing end-to-end safety infrastructure, 24/7 legal aid, fast-track counselling centers, and tailored digital skill-development bootcamps to increase female labor force participation.
Mission Poshan 2.0: A data-driven, technology-enabled nutritional program targeting iron-deficiency anemia, maternal health, and early childhood development to provide the foundational health security necessary for workforce retention.
3. Expanding the Digital and Credit Footprint
By pairing the Jan Dhan zero-balance banking framework with direct-benefit transfers (DBT), India has successfully eliminated administrative leakages. Rural women entrepreneurs now enjoy friction-free access to formal banking credits, digital payment processing tools, and direct market integration through public procurement channels.
Advancing Regional Commitments Within the SCO
Concluding her address, the Minister reiterated that the socio-economic challenges confronting rural working women—including digital exclusion and credit gaps—extend across geographical boundaries.
India extended an official invitation to SCO member states to join collaborative knowledge-exchange programs. These bi-lateral workshops will share technical implementation data regarding scalable micro-loans, mother-and-child healthcare analytics, and rural enterprise expansion models to catalyze financial growth across the entire SCO geography.
