“In just less than a decade, over 300 million women have bank accounts under the world’s largest financial inclusion programme,” India said in its statement at the United Nations Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Beijing + 30 review. “India’s commitment to invest in gender equality is evidenced by over a 218% decadal increase in gender budgeting.”
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women and 2025 will mark its 30th anniversary. India’s country statement was delivered by Preetam B Yashwant, joint secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The Centre had created a gender budgeting cell in every ministry to ensure advancement in policy on gender budgeting following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive about women-led development, said another official, who did not wish to be identified.
The government worked on gender-responsive solutions to reduce “time poverty” of women such as clean cooking fuels, tap water connections and the construction of toilets, the statement said.
To achieve the vision of becoming a developed economy by 2047, a goal set by PM Modi, the country statement said one of the key priorities is increasing women’s workforce participation, including in non-conventional sectors. “Going forward, India has prioritised sustained interventions and streamlined effective implementation of laws on women safety,” it said. The statement highlighted that India has adopted a multi-pronged approach to address the issues of women on a life-cycle continuum basis for their educational, social, economic and political empowerment.The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review has brought together more than 1,200 delegates from governments, civil society and youth groups, the private sector and academia to discuss progress and priority actions to support gender equality and women’s empowerment.Jointly organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN-Women, the three-day conference in Bangkok is being held ahead of next year’s 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
(The correspondent is in Bangkok at the invitation of UN Women’s India office)