India ready to build equal post-COVlD world for us, our daughters: Smriti Irani at UN

Smriti Irani. (File)

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani Friday reiterated India’s commitment to the “full and effective implementation” of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a declaration to advance the “goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere”.

Speaking at the United Nations High Level meeting on the 25th anniversary of the fourth World Conference on Women, Irani said, “India remains ready to work with all international partners to build a more just and equal post-COVlD world for us and our daughters.”

“Women numerically constitute half of humanity but their influence transfuses all dimensions of society, polity and economy. In India, we recognize the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment in all aspects of our developmental journey. We are now focused on inclusive growth and deep reforms that together are bringing about transformational changes,” added Irani.

The minister said that the Indian government has been heralding changes under the “visionary leadership” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which the country has moved from a paradigm of development for women to women-led development and that the reservation of seats for women in local governance in situations has ensured that more than 1.3 million elected women representatives provide leadership in formulating and implementing gender-sensitive public policies at the community level.

More than 200 million women have been brought into the formal banking system through the government’s Financial Inclusion Initiative and innovative use of digital technologies has provided equal opportunity for women to access insurance, loans, and social assistance, said the minister.

“‘Celebrating Girl Child in India and Enabling her Education’ is a multi-sectoral package of interventions and awareness campaigns that challenge gender stereotypes and realize the girl’s right to education. India today is attaching the highest priority to ensuring gender parity in all spheres of life and elimination of all forms of gender-based discrimination. Several of our legislations, such as those pertaining to sexual harassment of women at workplace, protection of women from domestic violence, protection of children from sexual offences, and our criminal laws’ amendments, have been strong enablers of women empowerment and protection of children especially girls, over the past six years,” said Irani.

Irani added that the country took a series of steps to ensure safety, security and the well-being of women during the Covid pandemic, including one-stop centres providing medical, psychological, legal, police and shelter facilities to women and the efforts have been made for continuing care of pregnant and lactating women through the National Nutrition Mission.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.