Central government keen about 50% reservation for women in urban local bodies; talks on with states, says Shri Venkaiah Naidu Efforts on to build consensus on reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislatures Urban Ministries to protect women's rights in new schemes through joint ownership of houses, public transport etc Shri Naidu calls for gender sensitive urban planning and development

Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu has said that the central government is working on mandating 50% reservation for women in all the urban local bodies of the country, to promote their participation in urban policy making for developing 'engendered cities'. He spoke of the need for imparting gender perspective to designing urban policies and programmes while inaugurating a two day 'International Conference on Gender and Urban Poverty' here today. The Conference is jointly organized by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and the Department For International Development (DFID) of UK.