Comments
As the first female President of Chile, between 2006 and 2010, Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, is an exemplary idol for women’s rights.
On her maiden visit to India after taking charge as the first Executive Director of UN Women, Bachelet applauded the progressive legislations and initiatives instituted by the Government, such as the Sexual Harassment Bill, the Domestic Violence Act, and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that guarantees equal pay for equal work for women.
However, she said there was an urgent need to implement these laws so that women at all levels can reap the benefits.
While appreciating the Government’s attempts to empower women by demarking quota for women at the level of gram panchayats, which has resulted in women occupying 40 per cent of seats in local bodies, Bachelet said: “Empowering women politically and economically is important, but that is not enough.”
She said the UN Women encourages India and other Governments across the world to adopt such special temporary measures to increase the number of women in decision-making positions and to help the cause of gender equality.
Bachelet raised concerns over unskilled women being left behind in the Indian economy.
“Today women’s workforce participation is only 22 per cent in India, and with increasing demand on skilled labour, unskilled women are being left behind. With the global food and financial crises, UN Women advocates for greater investments in the farm sectors, especially since 79 per cent of rural women workers in India are in agriculture.”
While talking about bias against women, which manifests itself in the forms of female feoticide and human trafficking, Bachelet said that the problem lies in the patriarchal mindset where women are seen as objects, not as people with voices.
She added that female feoticide, which is resulting in skewed sex ratios, is even being recognised as a security issue in many countries.
Highlighting the magnitude of the problem, Bachelet said flesh trade is the third largest ‘industry’ in terms of the money it generates, after drugs and guns.
She said India and other countries need to develop social protection mechanisms to ensure the well-being of its people. “If a family is not living in poverty maybe they would not ‘sell’ their daughters or marry them off early.”
The mandate of the UN women, which was set up in July, 2010, has five priority areas — increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.