Talk of women abroad, their role in projecting India's soft

A ministerial group set up to examine the draft National Policy for Women has suggested the document cover issues relating to women living outside the country and highlight their contribution in projecting India's 'soft power' abroad.

The Group of Ministers (GoM), chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, has also suggested involving women in launching awareness drives on issues like public toilets for women and their health issues, including reproductive and nutritional needs.

It also recommended that the achievements of Indian women post-Independence be properly acknowledged and their status and participation in new areas mentioned to underline their increasing role in various fields, a government official said.
 

These suggestion were made during a meeting of the GoM on March 25.

It was decided that the draft policy would be revised on the lines of the suggestions by the GoM at the earliest and taken for a review again, the official said.

The policy aims at developing a framework to provide equal rights and opportunities to women in family, community and at workplace.

The GoM comprises 12 Union ministers, including Swaraj, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi (as convenor), Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Law and Justice Ravishankar Prasad and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, among others.

The new policy, which will replace the National Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2001, also identifies and describes emerging issues such as making cyber space safer for women, redefining gender roles for reducing unpaid care work, among others.

The draft also plans to increase women's participation in politics, administration and civil services.

The draft policy addresses diverse needs of women through seven identified priority areas - health (including food security and nutrition), education, economy (including agri, industry, labour, employment, science and technology), governance, decision-making, violence against women and environment.