1

20th Women’s Political Empowerment Day Celebrations, 22-23rd April, 2013 jointly organized by Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) and National Mission for

Empowerment of Women,

Theme: Panchayats, Rights and Survival of the Girl Child at Constitution Club

Background: The domain of Empowerment of Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups

and Women in Difficult Circumstances has been taking many initiatives on behalf of

NMEW for the vulnerable and marginalized groups. This initiative is in line with the

series of National level consultations and formal interactions of Elected Women

Representatives along with other stake holders including UN-Women.

In this regard, NMEW actively participated and jointly organized the two day 20th

Women’s Political Empowerment Day Celebrations on the theme Panchayats,

Rights and Survival of the Girl Child with the Institute of Social Sciences,

UNICEF, Action Aid and IRRAD.

Officials from the NMEW were part of the deliberations in various technical sessions.

The consultation also aimed to look into the issues, solutions, best practices and

challenges faced by Elected Women Representatives including from the

marginalized groups in the current socio-economic set up and among the NMEW’s

purview of political and holistic empowerment of women.

The inaugural session was on 22nd April, 2013 on the first day and comprised

of Hon’ble Minister for Women and Child Development Shmt. Krishna Tirath who

presided as the Chief Guest along with Additional Secretary & Mission Director,

NMEW, Smt. Ratna Prabha. Dr.Ash Narain Roy Director, ISS rendered the welcome

address and Dr. Geogre Mathew, Chairman ISS gave the introductory remarks.

Mr.Louis Georges Arsenault was the guest of Honour.

On this occasion, three Women Panchayat leaders were honoured by Hon’ble

Minister Shmt. Krishna Tirath for their precious and outstanding work in various

spheres of development of their panchayat.

These women were namely Shmt. Nayana Patra, Ward Member, Baruan Gram

Panchayat,Dhenkenal, Odisha; Shmt. Shuhma Bhadu, Sarpanch, Dhani Miyan

2

Khan Gram Gram Panchayat, Fatehbad District, Haryana and Shmt. V.Sudha

Manirathinem, President, Nattarmangalam Gram Panchayat, Cuddalore District,

Tamil Nadu.

Dr. Ash Narain Roy, Director, ISS mentioned about the importance of the

day which ensured women’s active participation at the grass root level and marked

increase in the women’s political participation after the historic victory of the passing

of the 73rd amendment in 1992 which is also popularly known as Panchayati Raj Act.

Dr. Geogre Mathew, Chairman ISS spoke that the day when 33% of reservation in

Panchayats from women was announced for women in Political Empowerment is

indeed historic and emphasized on the role of the Elected Women Representatives

(EWRs) as a strong community in order to make an impact to safeguard the rights

and survival of women and girl child. He mentioned about 24th April, 1994 when the

day was celebrated for the first time and it was decided that this day would be

celebrated every year as women’s political empowerment Day.

Mr. Louis George Arsenault, Country Representative, UNICEF was a guest of

Honour. He spoke about the mandate of UNICEF stating that safeguarding rights of

3

the girl child and ensuring their survival is a very important agenda for UNICEF in

India. He also spoke about the role that and the important role of EWRs for ensuring

greater based violence. He suggested that at the grass-root level EWR’s must

imbibe good practices must for the safety and survival of girl child in order to provide

an enabling environment for improving the quality of citizenship. He mentioned that

EWR are major agents for creating an impact at the grass-root level as EWRs know

their constituency, have the capacity of ensuring that education and health facilities

and its awareness can be provided to the girls of their constituency. He emphasized

that investing on the girl child is the best investment and this measure would indeed

bring development in the society and ensure the survival of girl child.

Shmt. Krishna Tirath, Hon’ble Minister for Women and Child Development spoke

about women’s role in politics in retrospect, prospect and introspect and saluted all

EWR’s of the country for their valuable contribution. She co-related the 20th

Women’s Political Empowerment Day Celebrations with the Earth Day celebrations.

She stated that women and earth are very similar and drew a corollary as both

nurture and sustain humankind. She emphasized the importance of the role of EWR

in the development of the society at the grassroots ensuring the survival of girl child.

She also mentioned about the upcoming scheme of Ahimsa Messengers and stated

that the 25 EWRs launched this movement of legal empowerment of women as

Peace Ambassadors.

4

She reiterated that both Ahimsa Messengers and EWRs can be a major force

in ensuring the legal empowerment of women at the grassroots. She also spoke

about the SABLA scheme and how the SABLA Girls would also contribute as

Ahimsa Messengers to ensure the legal empowerment of women to prevent

domestic violence and violence against women and girls at the grass-roots. She

shared the initiatives of National Mission for Empowerment of Women such as the

Poorna Shakti Kendras or one stop information centres for women which the EWRs

can avail as empowerment centres. She finally appealed to all EWRs to ponder

about the issues and solutions being faced by the girl child and women at the grass

root level and create a trend of conducting stake-holder meetings as EWRs

participation would lead to the development of nation an empower fellow women and

girl children accordingly.

Shmt. K. Ratna Prabha, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, National Mission

for Empowerment of Women delivered the special address on the theme-

‘Challenges of Integrating the marginalized Sections of the society in

Governance’. She stated that India is the world's largest democracy and the role of

women in Indian politics is very crucial. Panchayats represent the first level of

interaction for over 60% of Indian populace. Panchayati Raj System is the bedrock

of rural government, has fostered many women participants and leaders. The

extreme marginalization of the women especially belonging to the SC, ST, OBC and

religious minorities, in the matters of governance, is pertinent issue since

independence. Integrating and mainstreaming them towards their contribution in the

national economy is indeed a challenge. She stated that the platform should be used

to brainstorm and reflect and alter the pace to ensure that the Panchayats become

the strongest institutions of governance and this would be possible if women and

especially women from the marginalized communities and from religious minorities

take full participation in the Panchayati Raj System and exert their right as equal

partners.

She also stated that the women belonging to the marginalized sections of the society

are often the most vulnerable and are subjected to various forms of harassment,

cruelty and trauma. Even today illiteracy, ignorance and social taboos act as barriers

in access. Most of them are not economically and financially independent; and due

to illiteracy and less social interaction they even don’t know about their rights and

5

entitlements. They are dependent on male members of the family for their basic

needs, even for day-to-day requirements. They also face with a battery of societal

taboos and challenges, restricted social interaction, limited earning possibilities, very

limited knowledge or awareness of their legal rights and natural reluctance to seek

justice.

She also spoke about the importance of EWR in the country in the present context

and how they can be instruments of change at the grass root level. She mentioned

about the various issues and social taboos being faced by women such as female

foeticide, and other social evils like dowry system, Devdasi practice and, Proxy

Sarpanches or Sarpanch Pati system as roadblocks for empowerment and shared

her view that EWR can be a major force in ensuring the elimination of such

malpractices and safeguarding the rights and survival of the girl child. She also

encouraged EWR’s to conduct more Charcha Sabhas or women collectives where

issues for safeguarding the women and girls of the constituency of EWRs can be

brainstormed by all.

Dr. Bidyut Mohanty presented the vote of thanks to all the guests, speakers and the

participants in the inaugural session and emphasized the role of Panchayats and

EWRs participation as good governance in India.

Ms. Rashmi Singh, Executive Director, NMEW spoke about convergence of inter-

departmental welfare schemes for women and girl child and the role of panchayats in

the open house discussion. She spoke about the National Mission for Empowerment

of Women and its mandate that it is an enabling factor to take these challenges

head-on. She informed about convergent models created under the Mission are

unique and are designed in a sustainable manner such that they will go a long way in

bringing social change in attitudes and mindsets at the grass root level. She also

mentioned about Poorna Shakti Kendras or “ one-stop-information-centre” for

women spread all over the country specially covering the gender critical districts in

the first instance serving as women resource centres and village level Mahila

Coordinators and generating social awareness and mobilize other women to know

about their rights. She emphasised that while PRI are mandated to carry out welfare

activities, they are not backed by the necessary policy/legal framework, authority or

fiscal commitments.

6

She mentioned that for the empowerment of women and girls at the grassroots, the

Empowerment of Panchayats and women Elected Women Representatives is an

imperative and therefore very necessary. She also pointed the present gap and

lacunas such as lack of inter-ministerial convergence at the grass root level and the

current need that line department staff members have to recognize that PRI carry the

mandate of the people and mentioned that PRI engagement is perhaps the only

existing mechanism to achieve large-scale community participation and reach

women & children particularly the marginalized and vulnerable, and the poor.

She emphasized the role of Gram Sabha as a community level accountability

mechanism to ensure that the functions of the PRI respond to people’s needs and

can indeed play a pivotal role in cementing the convergence initiatives of the

Government towards the outreach of the welfare schemes and programmes

especially for the empowerment of women and girls that need a convergent

approach. For instance, the programmes like the ICDS Scheme, though not specific

to the girl child, provides a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition,

pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health

check-up and referral services through the platform of the Anganwadi Centre.

7

Ms. Gouri Choudhuri, President, Action Aid, Ms. C.P. Sujaya, Vice President,

Council for Social Development spoke about the status of Girl Child in India and the

role of Panchayats in an interactive question and answer session with the women

Panchayat leaders from across the country present in the celebrations.

On the second day, the plenary session was conducted on the theme Violence

against the Girl Child in India. Dr. Deepti Mehrotra, Consultant, Knowledge

Partnership Programme chaired the session which included speakers such as

Ms.Vinu Kakkad from Breakthrough and Dr.Sarat K.Nanda, Sr. Fellow, ISS

The second plenary session was chaired by Ms Rita Sarin, Vice President and

Country Director, the Hunger Project. It was conducted on Social Sectors and

discriminations against women and children. During this session, Dr. Deepa

Ahluwalia, Sr. Project Advisor, Empowerment of Vulnerable and Marginalized

Groups and Women in Difficult Circumstances, NMEW participated in the session

and spoke about the “Social Sectors and Discrimination against Women and

Children”. She made a presentation and highlighted about the available

constitutional and legislative provisions both at the national and international level

including the commitments for the legal empowerment of women.

8

She shared information about various forms of discrimination that a girl/women face

during her life. It was substantiated with fact and figures on various demographic,

social and economic indicators showing discriminatory status of women as per the

available/existing data from various sources. The presentation brought across the

prevailing discrimination in sex ration, population growth, literacy rates, education,

health and nutrition status, work participation rate and political status of women in

the three tier system. She spoke in detail about the forms of discrimination that girls/

women face right from the discrimination in sex selection, education, health &

nutrition and discrimination in economic, political and legal sector etc. She also

shared the statistics on crime against women in India and deliberated about the

safety issues of women. Regarding women’ autonomy, she shared the facts of role

of women in decision making.

The speaker also made suggestions on the pragmatic approach and the crucial role

Panchayats and its members can play in ensuring the rights and survival of girl child

and in ensuring safety and security for women. It was also shared how the elected

women representatives can be of great support in ensuring that all girls in the school

going age are sent to school, all pregnant women are registered; women attend

Mahila Sabhas and Gram Sabhas etc. They can play a crucial role in providing an

enabling environment for girls and women in the Gram Panchayat.

The presentation also put forward some suggestions for further actions and

way forward such as urgent need for awareness generation, training/capacity

building of EWRs, need for collectivization, interdepartmental convergence approach

and better access of women welfare schemes and programmes though single

window approach etc.

9

The session ended with the interaction and open discussion wherein various

participants shared their experiences and concerns.

Dr. Mohini Giri, Chairperson, Guild of Services chaired the valedictory session

along with Dr. Satish Agnihotri DG, Defence Acquisition, Ministry of Defence, Govt.

of India followed by vote of thanks by Dr. Santosh Singh marking the end of the two

day celebrations.

10

Institute of Social Sciences

8 Nelson Mandela Road, New Delhi – 110 070 Tel: 91-11-43158800, 43158801, Fax: 91-11-43158850

Email: issgen@vsnl.net, website: www.issin.org

Women’s Political Empowerment Day Celebrations 22-23 April 2013

Theme: Panchayats, Rights and Survival of a girl Child Venue: Constitution Club, New Delhi

Tentative Programme

Monday, 22 April 2013

09.30 a.m Registration

10.00 a.m Inaugural Session

Welcome Address- George Mathew Chairman, Institute of Social Sciences (ISS), New Delhi

Chief Guest

Ms. Krishna Tirath, Hon’ble Minister of State(IC) for Women and Child Development, Government of India

Guest of Honour

Mr. Louis Georges Arsenault Country Representative UNICEF,New Delhi

Greetings: Dr. Ash Narain Roy, Director, ISS, New Delhi

“Outstanding women panchayat leaders awards 1999-2010:” AV Film, Honouring Outstanding Women Panchayat Leaders2013

10.50 Inaugural Address Honourable Union Minister of State(I) Ms.Krishna Tirath

11.25 Vote of Thanks, Dr. Bidyut Mohanty, Head, Women’s Studies, ISS New Delhi

11.30 Tea

12.00 pm Plenary 1 Keynote Address

Theme: Status of a girl child in India- Some Facts and role of panchayats Chair: Gauri Chaudhuri Action India

Speaker

CP Sujaya, Vice President, CSD, New Delhi

01.30 pm Lunch

02.30 pm Open House discussion

Theme: Convergence of inter-departmental welfare

11

schemes for women and Girl child and the role of Panchayats

Chair: Ms. Rashmi Singh, Executive Director, National Mission for Empowerment of Women,(NMEW) New Delhi

Rappoteur: Dr.Babita Verma,Senior Lecturer Laksmibai College, Delhi University, Q and A. will follow

03.30 pm Film – Tied a knot: Inter-regional marriages and consequences of feticide,

Anchors: 1. Prof.Tulsi Patel Department of Sociology Delhi

School of Economics,Delhi University, 2. Dr.Bijayalakshmi Nanda,Associate Professor,

Miranda House, University of Delhi

04.30 pm Special Address

THEME- Challenges of integrating the marginalized sections of the Society in governance

Speaker: Ms. K. Ratna Prabha, Additional Secretary and Mission Director, NMEW, New Delhi

05.30 pm Cultural Evening Presentation by Women from different states

07.30pm Dinner

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

10.00 Plenary session 2

Theme: Violence against a girl child in India-An overview Chair: Deepti Merohotra, Consultant Knowledge partnership

Programme , New Delhi Speakers:

1. Vinu Kakad, Break Through 2. Dr Sarat K. Nanda, Senior Fellow , ISS

11.30 am Tea

12.00 pm Plenary 3

Open House Discussion

Chair: Gurjeet Kaur Actionaid Dr Meeta Patnaik Consultant , Tele-Medicine, LA Cal. Saileja Training module

01.30 Lunch

02.30 pm Plenary- 4

Theme: Social Sectors and Discriminations against women and Children

Chair: Ms. Rita Sarin, Vice President and Country Director, The Hunger Project, New Delhi

Speakers: 1. Dr. Deepa Ahluwalia, Senior Project Advisor,

12

National Mission for Empowerment of Women, Ministry of Women and Child Development, New Delhi

2. Ms. Sneha Banerjee, Senior lecturer Gargi College, Delhi University

3.30 pm Tea

04.30 pm Valedictory Session

Chair: Dr. Mohini Giri Chairperson, Guild of Service New Delhi

Address: Theme: Does Girl child have a future?

Speaker: Dr. Satish Agnihotri, New Delhi

Vote of Thanks: Dr. Santosh Singh, Senior Researcher ,ISS