India ready to work with international partners for a Post-Covid World-Smriti Irani

Nupur Lanjekar

10th October 2020

Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani addressed the United Nations General Assembly's high-level meeting. This meeting's theme was "Accelerating the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls". Irani was present with over 150 Ministers, Prime Ministers, and Presidents. "India recognises the centrality of gender equality and women's empowerment in all aspects of our developmental agenda", she said.

Smriti Irani at the 25th Anniversary of the fourth world conference on women (Source: Times Of India)

In her speech, Irani mentions that India is now focusing on deep reforms and inclusive growth that would bring out transformational changes under the leadership of 'visionary leader' – Shri Narendra Modi. "Heralding these changes under the leadership of our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have moved from a paradigm of women's development to women-led development," she said.

While addressing the concerns regarding what the government is doing, Irani added that efforts towards taking care of lactating women and pregnant women in the National Nutrition Mission, which aims to make India free of malnutrition by 2022. This mission also includes young children and adolescent girls. Irani says that India is fully committed to ensuring a discrimination-free, post COVID – 19 world. "More than 200 million women have been brought into the formal banking system through the Government's Financial Inclusion Initiative, and innovative use of digital technologies has provided equal opportunity for women to access insurance, loans, and social assistance," she added. "India today is attaching the highest priority to ensuring gender parity in all spheres of life and elimination of all forms of gender-based discrimination".

Smriti Irani then talked about the reservation for women in local governance and how it has helped 1.3 million elected women representatives are provided with leadership in the formulation and providing gender-sensitive public policies at the community level. While talking about the various steps that the country has taken towards women, Irani also mentioned the "One-stop centre scheme" set up to help and address women who face domestic violence, sexual violence, harassment, and provide them with legal, psychological, police, and shelter facilities.

The Union Minister also mentioned the recent rape case of a 19 -year-old girl from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh who was allegedly gang-raped by four men who are behind bars. The victim was cremated by Uttar Pradesh police quite hastily, which caused nation-wide outrage. Irani finally broke the silence after receiving a lot of criticism on stillness.

Irani concluded her speech by stating that what we all achieved 25 years ago at the fourth world conference remains a guiding light and a significant source of inspiration for our actions in a national and international arena. She said that India would be open to working with international partners and create an equal environment in the post COVID – 19 world for all the women.

News Sources: The Hindu, DD News, NDTV

Edited by Sanskriti Airon