Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formed a group of ministers – including External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Women and Child Development Minster Maneka Gandhi – to examine the draft National Policy for Women, 2016, PTI reported. The GoM is expected to meet on February 16.
The 12-member GoM comprises of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of Law and Justice Ravishankar Prasad, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot, among others.
The draft policy will replace the National Policy for the Empowerment of Women, 2001. It aims to create a framework to enable process of developing policies and programmes which will ensure equal rights and opportunities for women in the family, community, workplace and in governance.
“In a society with deep-rooted cultural and social beliefs about gender roles, a new policy on a rights-based approach is needed to create an enabling environment for woman on a life cycle continuum,” an unidentified official told PTI.
Improving access of universal education for girls, appropriate health care for women, ensuring equal participation in social, political and economic spheres, are among the many objectives of this draft policy.
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