Speech of Smt.

Krishna Tirath, Honble Minister for Women and Child Development, Government of India, on Bridging Gender Gaps in India for Eminent Speakers Forum, 27th September, 2013 at Manila, Philippines

1. Honble dignitaries, ADB management, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am happy to be a part of this forum to share insights on the important subject of Bridging Gender Gaps in India. 2. To set the context, let me share that the principle of gender quality has been enshrined in the Constitution of India. Our Constitution also empowers the State to take affirmative action in favour of women and children. Flowing from this Constitutional mandate, the government has brought out laws, development policies, plans and programs aimed at womens advancement in different spheres. India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. India acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women in 1993. We attach highest priority to the Millennium Development Goals and are also pursuing the Post 2015 MDG Agenda. Our efforts for empowerment of women are multipronged and are driven through a combination of interventions at legislative, policy, programmatic and implementation levels through a variety of agencies belonging to the Government, the non-government and the civil society.
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Holistic empowerment of women is sought to be achieved through convergence of their social, economic and political identities. 3. As per our Constitutional Amendments, there is one-third reservation for women in the local bodies. Every five years, more than a million women are elected to the Panchayats functioning in rural areas. This large-scale mobilization of women in the public life is an unprecedented event. It is the most important political intervention aimed at the empowerment of women anywhere in the world. Government of India has proposed effecting a Constitutional amendment to increase the percentage of reservation of seats for women in Panchayats from one third in the Panchayats and half in the urban local bodies. Several State Governments have amended their respective laws providing 50% reservation for rural women. 4. Government continues to adopt various policies, programs and legal measures for operationalizing its commitment towards eliminating discrimination. A number of legislations seek to empower working women through affirmative action in employment and labor related issues such as the Employees State Insurance Act of 1948, the Factories Act, 1948, the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, and the Unorganized Sector Workers Social Security Act, 2008.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 provides that rights conferred under it shall be registered jointly in the name of both spouses and at least one-third of the members of the Forest Rights Committee at the Gram Panchayat level be women. 5. Several laws have been amended to make it more gender inclusive. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 removes gender discriminatory provisions in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 and gives the daughter the same right as the son to inherit the coparcenary property (ancestral property of the Hindu undivided family). The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2008 provides for more time to mothers for the care and protection of infants by regulating maternity benefits available to women in factories, mines, circuses, plantations and shops or establishments employing 10 or more persons. 6. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 addresses the issue of both marital and familial abuse. It recognizes that violence can take various forms, including physical, economic, social and psychological. There is also a comprehensive legislative and policy framework to address the problem of trafficking of women and girls.

7. In recent years, we have taken several important initiatives to secure women's rights and furthering inclusive growth. Let me state some of the initiatives. In the year 2010, we started a new programme for holistic empowerment of women in a mission mode manner. The programme is called the National Mission for Empowerment of Women which is working to strengthen the inter-sector convergence; facilitate the process of coordinating all the womens welfare and socio-economic development programmes across ministries and departments. This Mission has initiated number of initiatives for women empowerment with focus on convergence in efforts of various Ministries. This Mission has initiated number of initiatives for women empowerment with focus on convergence in efforts of various Ministries. The Ministry has constituted a High Level Committee to holistically look into various issues concerning women. The Ministry has constituted A High Level Committee to holistically look into various issues concerning women. 8. In a unique development to ensure citizens their right to live with dignity in a healthy environment; the National Green Tribunal Act was enacted providing for effective legal protection for environment, forests and other natural resources.

In 2009, the Right to Education Act was enacted, which introduced a new fundamental right in the Constitution for free and compulsory education of children in a neighborhood school, which inter alia means great benefits for rural girls. In 2005, the landmark National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed and the program launched in 2006 to enhance livelihood security for the poor through 30% of employment reserved for women. The number of women accessing the scheme is about 40%. During 2005, the historic Right to Information Act (RTI) was enacted. These legislations have also contributed in improving grassroots governance and service delivery. A National Skill Development Council with Prime Minister as Chair has been set up. 9. Our Twelfth Five Year Plan focuses on faster, more inclusive and sustainable development. Government has introduced and strengthened various programs and schemes to facilitate this gender inclusive process. It is a matter of pride to note that the enrolment of girls at primary level and upper primary levels have increased over last years. The National Literacy Mission or Saakshar Bharat Mission, with its objective of extending educational options to those adults who have no access to formal education, targeted female literacy as a critical instrument for womens empowerment.

This has led to an increase in literacy, amongst women, from about 54% as per Census 2001 to about 65% as per Census 2011. With growing literacy and financial independence women feel more empowered today to assert their right to a life of dignity and self- worth. Skill development and skill upgradation of women are amongst the priorities of Government. 10. The National Food Security Act, 2013 is a landmark step of our government to confer a legal right to access to food grains at affordable price to about two third of our population. The Act has a unique feature on Women Empowerment with long term policy and legislative implications for achieving gender equality and gender justice. It provides that only a woman can be treated as head of household for the purpose of issue of ration cards to get benefits of cheaper food grains. 11. A number of schemes and programmes for overall social and economic empowerment of women are being administered through a life cycle approach. The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in India. Today, the women entrepreneurs are breaking the glass ceilings in India and are found to be entering into every business field.

Women entrepreneurs are actively participating in business leadership and decision making. In this regard, India is committed to promoting womens entrepreneurship which will build robust economy and well-being of the family and communities thereby reducing poverty and leading to holistic empowerment of women. This will not only contribute to inclusive growth but also to the global Millennium Development Goals. 12. To facilitate access to the formal banking system and improve credit delivery to women, public sector banks (PSBs) have been directed to earmark 5% of their net bank credit (NBC) for lending to women. About 24.25 million poor households have gained access to formal banking system through Self Help Groups (SHG)-bank linkage program and 90% of these groups are women only groups. The SHGs Bank linkage program aims at financial inclusion by extending outreach to poor households in rural areas, making credit services available at their doorstep on a sustainable basis. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) set up under my ministry in 1993 also aims to meet the credit needs of asset-less and poor women especially in the rural and unorganized sectors. The primary objective of the Kosh is to bridge the gap between formal banking sector and the needs of the poor.

13. Our Government has also announced a novel initiative of setting up the countrys first ever state owned all women bank in this years budget. A committee of bankers and other experts has been constituted to prepare a blue print for such a bank. This bank will start with an initial capital of Rs. 1000 crore. It will lend mostly to women and women led business and provide support to women SHGs and their livelihood. It will employ predominantly women thus increasing job opportunities for women and will help in the emergence of many women entrepreneurs in the country. This bank is expected to create impact particularly in rural and semi urban areas.

14. We have been recognizing the need to address the invisibility of womens unpaid work which is one of the root causes of the unequal power relationship between men and women. My Ministry has been making efforts to recognize and make visible the full extent of the work of women and their contribution to the national economy. National Consultations were organized and the time-use survey is in progress. A Task Force has been also been constituted to suggest/guide the future course of action in this regard.

15. Data from Indian Census in 2011 has revealed that the Child Sex Ratio under six years of age has been continuously on the decline, falling from 927 in 2001 to an all-time low of 919 females per 1000 males in 2011. The steeply declining Child Sex Ratio under six years of age in India - means that the girl child is being excluded not only from Indias economic growth processes but from life itself. My Ministry has drawn a National Plan of Action through which we would harmonize our actions in Gender Critical Districts of India worse on CSR to ensure that the girl takes birth, completes her schooling and continues to function as a productive member of the society. 16. Large investment in health sector through the National Rural Livelihood Mission has led to drop in IMR, MMR and TFR. India has not reported a single polio case since 12th January 2011. The number of newly detected HIV positive cases has dropped by over 50% in the last decade. The proportion of underweight children has declined by 3 percentage points during 1998-99 to 200506. In 2010, IMR showed significant decline with national level estimate at 47.The Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) at national level has declined during the last decade. India is expected to cover about 89% children in the age group 12-23 months for immunization against measles by 2015. India tends to reach MMR of 139 per 100,000 live births by 2015. The rate of coverage of institutional deliveries in India has increased from 26% in 1992-93 to 47% in 2007-08.
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17. One of the key initiatives undertaken by the Government to promote gender-responsive policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in rural areas has been the adoption of Gender Budgeting as a tool for mainstreaming gender. Through Gender Budgeting the Government aims to ensure the translation of Governments policy on gender equity into budgetary allocations. To institutionalize this process, the Government has initiated the formation of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) within all Central Ministries/Departments. 18. As recent events of horrific violence against women in India indicate, it is not the lack of normative framework or basis that is impeding our efforts, but rather its effective implementation. To address issues related to violence against women both in public and private spaces, the Government of India has undertaken various corrective measures. It has set up fast track courts to try cases pertaining to violence against women. The report of the government established committee headed by the former Chief Justice of India is very comprehensive and recommends a range of measures. Based on these recommendations, the Government amended the criminal law in India with broader definition of sexual assault and harassment, including new types of violent behavior such as voyeurism, stalking, etc., and aims for greater accountability of public officials.

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19. The Parliament has also enacted the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in February this year covering women employed in both public and private sectors. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act came into force in November, 2012.The Government has recently announced budgetary allocation worth US$ 200 million for a dedicated fund to implement measures to ensure dignity and safety of women. 20. My government is running schemes and programmes for victims of violence who are provided holistic psycho-social support along with medico legal care and vocational training for their rehabilitation. For better coordinated response, the government is developing protocols for police and investigating agencies, medical functionaries, lawyers, and other service providers. Government proposes to introduce One Stop Service cum Facilitation Centre for Women .

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21. Even though a lot has been achieved, gender based violence and discrimination against women continue to be a pervasive feature of our society. Unequal economic, social, and political status and position of women is an outcome of patriarchy and the deeply entrenched socio-cultural stereotypes about women. In order to address this, we have recently launched an innovative programme on Ahimsa Messenger which aims at generating awareness about legal rights and provisions through a cadre of well trained workers and volunteers. It generates community response mechanism comprising of local leaders and youths at the grassroot level and facilitates in safe and secure environment of children. The programme will facilitate in addressing and eliminating all forms of violence against women and children and is being implemented in a phased manner through training of various grassroots functionaries across age groups and levels, by facilitating community mobilization as a core strategy.

22. Our association with ADB dates back to 2011, at the time of its participation in the 1st Gender Mainstreaming Consultation Workshop for South Asian National Womens Machineries (NWM) held at ADB/HQ in September 2011. The Government of India appreciates ADBs efforts to transfer knowledge and share global best practices on key developmental themes such as gender equality.

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23. This publication is especially timely in light of the Twelfth Five Year Plan and its core theme of inclusive development. Government of India recognizes that inclusive development requires efforts to ensure that its programs reach and serve women, and make full use of their skills and perspectives for the benefit of the country. 24. I am pleased to note that this publication makes a valuable contribution to ADBIndia collaboration by identifying issues and opportunities for promoting gender equality in infrastructure and non-infrastructure sectors. It also provides insights into policies and strategies currently in place to mainstream gender in urban development, agriculture and natural resources, roads and transport, financial management, and energy. These are all critical sectors for ADB and India. It gives me immense pleasure to launch ADB India Gender Equality Diagnostics of Selected Sectors, here today, and I congratulate ADB management and staff for coming out with this useful new publication and for working together with the Government of India to address gender disparities.

Thank you and Jai Hind.

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