‘Women’s uplift hinges on gender neutral policies’

KOCHI:  The Kerala Management Association's (KMA) Women Leadership Conclave 2018 saw various personalities, who made a name for themselves in the social, political, business and entertainment arena, speak on the experiences they had encountered during the course of their pathbreaking endeavour. The event held at The Centre Hotel on Friday had former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to the US and China Nirupama Rao as the chief guest. Filmmaker Anjali Menon was the guest of honour at the function. The most-discussed topics at the event were women empowerment and the qualities essential for a good leader. According to Nirupama Rao, woman empowerment will become a reality only when things change in the top echelons of society. "Empowerment will happen only when policies are made gender neutral.

And for this to happen, we need to have women policymakers. Presence of women in the top rungs of governance will help in the formulation of womenfriendly laws and guidelines. But this is not happening," she said. According to Nirupama, this is not a localised issue. "If you take the whole of South Asia, you will see the male-female ratio with regard to their presence in the policy-making levels is skewed.

So, when you are talking about and seeking empowerment, you should represent entire South Asia, not just your own country," she said. She cited career diplomat C B Muthamma against the Union Government of India case which prompted the then government to effect a change in the service rules for IFS officers - the women diplomats of the time were required to put in their papers if they got married. "Also, they were denied promotion and had to suffer a lot of prejudice.

Muthamma filed a case against the Union Government for denying her promotion to Grade I of the Indian Foreign Service. She said in her petition that women are forced to give an undertaking at the time of joining the foreign service that if they were to get married, they would resign from the service. However, the government changed the rule and she moved a plea to dismiss the petition," Nirupama said. "But the one thing that stands out, in this case, is the statement that Justice V R Krishna Iyer gave while dismissing the petition.

He said, "Muthamma you might have sought dismissal of the case, but I would like to assure you that I won't let it go." The incident happened in 1979, but nothing much has changed since then, she said. Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Nirupama expressed deep concern over the spurt in the number of rapes cases in the country.

On the Indo-China relations, she said: "The informal meet the heads of state had recently is the right way to find a solution to a conflict. It is a positive approach." According to Anjali Menon, the empowerment must happen from inside. "You should be able to say 'yes I am empowered', only then will you be able to lead others towards empowerment," she said. A panel discussion on 'Pleasures and Pain' was also held at the event.