Chandigarh, April 2 : on Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani said that ensuring holistic development of women and children in a safe and secure environment is crucial for sustainable and equitable development of the country and for achieving transformational economic and social changes. Stating this while presiding over the Zonal Conference organised by on Government with nine States/UTs here on Saturday, she said that the objective of this initiative is to empower and protect of women and children who constitute 67.7 per cent of India’s population. Ms Irani informed that the prime motive of the Ministry of Women and Child Development is to address gaps in State action for women and children and to promote inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral convergence to create gender equitable and child centred legislation, policies and programs. She said that on Cabinet has approved three important Umbrella Schemes of the Ministry to be implemented in mission mode — Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Shakti and Mission Vatsalya. Speaking on the ocassion, Punjab Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Dr Baljit Kaur said that proper implementation of central sponsored programs is must to achieve the target to empower women and children of the country. She said that Women and Children needed equal opport ties in every sectors and Education can play a vanguard role to empower these sections of the society. She said that violence and injustices are the core concern areas which created hindrances in holistic development. Dr Kaur suggested that the central policies should be designed to remove all the social barriers creating obstacles to overall development of women and children. DB SHK2239