COVER HINDI - Ministry of Women and Child Development

Promoting Gender Equality – GOI –
UNDP project
1.41 Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with UNDP in July 2004 for implementation of a project
titled “Promoting Gender Equality”. The project has three
components as given below :-
— Action Research on Women Leaders - Increased
understanding of the factors that enable/constrain
women to assume leadership in various spheres
— Action research on Vulnerable women- Increased
information base of the approaches and actions
adopted by the diverse agencies to address the social
security concerns of women belonging to the
vulnerable groups
— Impact of macroeconomic polices on women
workers – National and State level dialogue and
consensus on benchmarking and tracking genderrelated
impacts of key processes such as
globalization, liberalization and WTO.
During the year 2005-06, an amount of Rs.1.186 crores
havebeen released under the project.
During the year 2006-07, the following proposals were
approved :
— A Study on Ageing, Disability and Gender Trade
— Documenting lessons and learning in organizing
Home Based Workers
— On Gender and Trade by National Productivity
Council and IIT
— Preparation of GDI/GEM
— Preparation of a Women’s Development Report
— Engendering the process of XI Plan
— Second Time Use Survey
— Printing a volume on gender and macro economics
Convention on Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
1.42 India signed the Convention on Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 30 th July
1980 and ratified it on 9 th July 1993 with one reservation
and two declaratory statements. The convention obligates
the State parties to undertake appropriate legislative and
other measures to eliminate discrimination against women
and for guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of
human rights and fundamental freedom on the basis of
equality with men. The First Report was submitted (on
21 st October) in 1997. This was considered (on 24 th and
30 th ) in June 2000, when the Indian delegation led by the
Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development made
on oral presentation before the Committee. A combined
2 nd and 3 rd Periodic Report was submitted in June 2005.
The UN Committee on CEDAW considered the Report
on 18 th January 2007.
1.43 As the implementation of the provisions of CEDAW
requires a greater dialogue and convergence among the
various ministries responsible for implementing different
legal provisions, policies and programmes that work
towards women’s equality and elimination of
discrimination against women, an Inter-Ministerial
Committee has been constituted, under the chairpersonship
of the Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child
Development. India is the second country in the world to
have such a Committee for implementation of CEDAW.
Beijing Platform for Action
1.44 The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in
Beijing in 1995 was a landmark event that set the pace for
women’s empowerment when a Declaration and Platform
for Action (BFPA) were adopted. India adopted both
without any reservations and identified critical areas of
concern. The Committee on Status of Women reviews
progress made by member countries in the critical areas.
The 50 th session of the committee was held in New York
from 27 th February to 10 th March 2006. A delegation
headed by Dr. Sayeda Hamid, Member Planning
Commission attended the meeting. The 51 st session of
Committee on Status of Women has been scheduled from
26 th February – 9 th March 2007.
Grant-in-aid for Research, Publications
and Monitoring
1.45 The Ministry of Women and Child Development is
implementing the scheme of grant-in-aid for research,
publication and monitoring since 1986-87 with the
objective to promote research studies for testing the
feasibility and efficacy of existing programmes and
10 Annual Report 2006-07