The NRCW comprises of gender experts from various thematic domains like health and nutrition, gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming, gender rights and gender based violence, economic empowerment and poverty alleviation, communication and advocacy etc.
It works at the national level as an engine for achieving convergence and as an integral part of the Mission Directorate.
The State Resource Centres for Women (SRCW) have been set up in 30 States and UTs.
The NRCW and SRCWs carry out studies and research projects in various areas and is responsible for carrying out impact assessment studies of policies, schemes and programmes of the Government.
Further, the NRCW is responsible for devising suitable media strategy to highlight the programmes and schemes of the Government as well as public service campaigns to focus on retrograde practices which afflict the society.
The NRCW operates from Delhi while 30 states and UTs have also set up SRCWs in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Daman and Diu, Tripura, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim and Maharashtra.
Since these resource centres work at the policy level and as facilitating agencies, the benefits to women are indirect. The campaigns and awareness raising programmes of SRCW benefit a large cross section of women throughout the country.
The NRCW and SRCWs work on critical issues relating to women. Since most of these issues are multi sectoral in nature, these Centres work with the objective of achieving inter sectoral convergence for holistic empowerment of women and facilitate the process of coordinating all the women’s welfare and socio economic development programmes across Ministries and line Departments.
These bodies also work towards raising awareness about various schemes and programmes related to women and important Acts and other legal information which have a direct impact on women.
While there is a national level Centre, the State level Centres are set up in all States and UTs.
The NRCW and SRCW have been operating successfully and effectively on various inter sectoral and critical issues related to women like declining child sex ratio, violence against women etc.
This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.