India committed to advance gender equality: Maneka Gandhi

India is fully committed to advancing gender equality and women's empowerment and eliminating all forms of discrimination against women for forging inclusive society and development, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said here.

"Government of India remains fully committed to advancing the goal of gender equality and empowerment of women, and to eliminating all forms of discrimination against women," Gandhi, Minister for Women and Child Development, said yesterday.

India is committed to building upon the success of the Millennium Development Goals and aims to move further through "transparent and accountable" mechanisms to ensure that women and men enjoy the same opportunities and are accorded equal treatment, she said during a round table session at the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Gandhi said ensuring gender equality and combating violence against women are integral to India's national pursuit of forging inclusive society and development.

The minister said that amendments to the Indian criminal law in 2013 significantly broadened the definition of sexual assault and harassment, increased penalties for offenders and aimed for greater accountability of public officials in providing relief to woman affected by violence.

Further the National Policy for Women is being updated to capture the emerging challenges to position women as equal partners of sustainable development, Gandhi said adding that efforts are being made by the government to close the gap between the gender equality commitments.

Terming Information and Communication Technology as an "effective enabler" of gender equality and empowerment of women, she told the high-level gathering of women ministers, officials and NGOs from around the world that India has launched the 'Mahila e-Haat', an online marketing platform for women to encourage women entrepreneurs.

The two-week long CSW has brought together representatives from the UN system, member states and civil society from around the world to review the progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment and plan new initiatives.

Over 400 events have been planned with the priority theme being women's empowerment and sustainable development, given that this is the first session of the Commission since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in September last year.

Outlining measures taken in India towards gender equality, Gandhi said the country is taking strong and result-oriented steps to overcome the challenge of deep-seated bias towards the girl child under the flagship programme 'BetiBachao- BetiPadhao'.

"We have also ensured that while formulating and designing any programme or project of the government, gender analysis is duly undertaken and indicators for judging the success from a gender perspective are included in the Outcome Document," the minister said.

In order to provide an institutional mechanism for women affected by violence to access help, 'One Stop Centres' are being set-up in various parts of the country with services to affected women, including medical aid, police assistance, legal aid/case management, psycho-social counselling and temporary support services under one roof.

India is also building gender-responsive and sensitised police force through training programs, performance appraisal and by promoting 33 per cent reservations to women in police force, Gandhi added.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the Session, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development Preeti Sudan said sustained multi-sectoral actions are needed to converge and provide a comprehensive response to tackle any form of violence against women and girls.

"No schematic intervention can succeed without the involvement of communities hence community engagement, partnership and ownership is extremely critical for the success of any intervention.

"It is also important to give flexibility to your implementing partners to experiment, innovate and showcase within the broad framework of the guidelines for any intervention," Sudan said.

She said that multi-sectoral approach is a must as no single ministry can tackle violence issues alone and along with strict implementation of Acts, positive reinforcement is essential to achieving goals of empowerment of women and gender equality.