WUNRN
Press
Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Women and Child Development
FIRST
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN INDIA PRESENTED
03 February 2014 - The High Level Committee on Status of
Women has presented its first copy of the Preliminary Report to the Minister
for Women and Child Development, Smt. Krishna Tirath, here today.
The High Level Committee identified Violence Against
Women, Declining Sex Ratio and Economic Disempowerment of Women as three key
burning issues which require immediate attention of the nation, and action by
the government.
The flagged recommendations for immediate action are as
follows:
1. That the
constitutional promise of a right-based approach needs to be promoted for
positive outcomes to enhance the status of women.
2. That there is an
urgent need to formulate National Policy and Action Plan for Ending Violence
Against Women impacting the life cycle of female population at every stage of
her life.
3. Institutional
mechanisms should be strengthened and well resourced. The Minister for Women
and Child Development should be of cabinet rank, thus reflecting the
Government’s concern with women’s issues.
4. Currently large
amount of resources continue to be directed towards child development under the
Ministry of Women and Child Development. Increased resources would enable
prioritization of gender concerns as well.
5. Further, the MWCD
should engage with, participate in and draw from international debates. It is
also not out of place to point out that the Concluding Observations of the
CEDAW Committee should be revisited and acted upon by Government of India as
part of our international commitments to uphold women’s rights.
6. The parliamentary
Committee on Empowerment of Women must examine the gender implications of all proposed
legislations. There is also a need for the Committee to meet more often, and
its meetings should be open to civil society groups as observers.
7. The role of the
National Commission for Women must go beyond reactive interventions to fulfill
the proactive mandate of studying, recommending and influencing policies, laws,
programmes and budgets to ensure full benefits to the stake holders.
8. The National
Commission for Women, as an apex body is responsible for and answerable to 50%
of the Indian population. In keeping with this, the selection and composition
of the members must be made through an institutionalized and transparent
process. A selection committee comprising of experts must be given the task of
searching, identifying and selecting the members who must be professionals of
proven expertise. Appointments must be made keeping professional
capability in mind and not political affiliations.
9. Gender Responsive
Budgeting coupled with gender audits should be taken more seriously to reflect
purposive gender planning.
10. The development paradigm must have a
major thrust on decentralization which would result in larger numbers of women
participating in the developmental process.
11. Legislation for 50 per cent reservation
for women in all decision-making bodies should be enacted.
12. Assessment of the status of women in
India should be a regular feature. It took 25 years for the first Status Report
and now 40 years to constitute the present High Level Committee. There
should be a regular mechanism for continuous examination and assessment of
status of women and reporting back publically to the nation and women of India
on a bi-annual basis.
The Government of India had set up a High Level Committee
on the Status of Women to undertake comprehensive study to understand the
status of women since 1989 as well as to evolve appropriate policy
interventions based on a contemporary assessment of women’s needs vide this
Ministry’s Resolutions No. 4-5/2009-WW dated the 27th February,
2012 and 29th June, 2012 comprising of the Chairperson, Member
Secretary and seventeen Members.
Consequent
upon the resignation of the Chairperson, Member Secretary and three Members of
the Committee, the High Level Committee is reconstituted as
under, w.e.f 21 May 2013-
|
1 |
Dr. Pam Rajput |
Chairperson |
|
2 |
Dr. Smrit Kaur |
Member |
|
3 |
Ms. Razia A. R. Patel |
Member |
|
4 |
Dr. Mridul Eapen |
Member |
|
5 |
Ms. Manira Pinto |
Member |
|
6 |
Ms. Monisha Behal |
Member |
|
7 |
Ms. Kavita Kuruganti |
Member |
|
8 |
Prof. Darshini Mahadevia |
Member |
|
9 |
Dr. Amita Baviskar |
Member |
|
10 |
Ms. Bindu Ananth |
Member |
|
11 |
Ms. Rita Sarin |
Member |
|
12 |
Dr. Ravi Verma |
Member |
|
13 |
Dr. R. Govinda |
Member |
|
14 |
Secretary, WCD |
Member Secretary |
The
Committee will conduct an extensive literary survey on the status of women in
India from 1989 onwards. It will prepare a report on the socio-economic, political
and legal status of women in India. The report will be submitted to the
Ministry of Women and Child development within two years period.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Measures Suggested
·
Formulate a comprehensive National Policy and Action
Plan to end violence against women.
·
Recommended 50 per cent reservation for women in all
decision-making bodies and an overhaul of the criminal justice system to
ensure justice for women.
·
A seperate panel should be apointed to study the
condition of Muslim women by the Government.
·
It also recommended to increase the rank of “Ministry
of Women & Child Development” to Cabinet rank. This will show how
much government is serious about women issues. Currently, Ministry
of Women and Child Development is not a cabinet rank ministry i.e.
it’s minister is not considered as a Cabinet Minister.
·
Resources allocated to the cocerned ministry should be
increased. Also it has been found that much of the share of resources
allocated to this ministry is taken by Child Development programs
undertaken by this ministry.
·
This committee also gave following suggestions to the
following bodies:
·
a) To Parliamentary Committee on the Empowerment of
Women: It must study & examine all the legislations proposed in the
Parliament regarding women.
·
b) National Commission for Women (apex body for
women): It must go beyond ‘reactive interventions’ in women cases. It must
study, recommend & influence policies, laws, programs and budgets so
that women in India can really benefit.
·
Reinforce criminal justice system.
·
Increase gender sensitivity in goverment machinery.
·
Effectively implement Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal
Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act and anti-dowry
laws
_______________________________________________________________________________________