Ministerial Conference of Ministry of WCD on Women’s Empowerment celebrates actions to accelerate women led development
Outlined solutions tailored for women across education, entrepreneurship,
technology, finance and beyond
Partnerships strengthened, mindsets shifted, and policies transformed through
camaraderie, consensus and teamwork
The G20
Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat
from 2nd to 4th August 2023, with participation by Women and Gender Equality
Ministers from across the G20 and Guest countries.
The
Ministry of Women and Child Development as the Nodal Officer for G20 Empower
and W20 organized seven international meetings including the Ministerial
Conference for Woman Empowerment. The Conference had a total participation of
over 138 International delegates from 15 G20 Countries namely Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Canada, European Union, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and USA and 5
Guest Countries namely Bangladesh, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore and UAE.
There have been over 60 speakers at the Conference.
The
Inaugural session of Conference was addressed by Prime Minister of India, Narendra
Modi; Chief Coordinator, India’s G20 Presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla; Minister
for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs, India, Smriti Zubin
Irani; Hon’ble Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, Indonesia,
I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati; Vice Minister of Women, Government of the
Federative Republic of Brazil, Maria
Helena Guarezi; and Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development,
India, Indevar Pandey.
Subsequently Country Statements and Ministerial
Statements were made by delegates from G20 Member States. During the
conference, the discussions ranged from themes such as education including
STEM, digital skilling, women in emerging technologies, partnership for
promoting leadership at grassroots, culture and women’s entrepreneurship &
enterprise.
The Ministerial Conference concluded with an address by Minister
of State for Women & Child Development, India, Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai,
the handing over of the baton to Brazil, and a closing statement by Hon’ble
Minister for Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs, India, Smriti
Irani. The Chair Statement representing the views of the G20 Ministers
responsible for gender equality and the empowerment of women from G20 members,
guest countries, and representatives from international organizations was
released. In this, they reaffirmed their commitment to achieving gender
equality and empowerment of women.
At the Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment, Prime
Minister of India, Narendra Modi summarized India’s vision of women-led
development with his words: “When women prosper, the world prospers. Their
economic empowerment fuels growth, their access to education drives global
progress, their leadership fosters inclusivity, and their voices inspire
positive change.”
During India's G20 Presidency, women-led development has emerged
as a crucial focus area on a life-course approach basis, marking a shift from
focus on women’s empowerment alone. Through consensus-building on the global
stage, India modelled a vision for progress in uplifting women worldwide with
seven in-person conferences and 86 international meetings including virtual
meetings that witnessed the participation of over 300 delegates from 18 G20
countries and 7 Guest countries. India has also added focus on the empowerment
and recognition of women at the local or community level. Indeed, this was
recognized by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, who stated that
empowerment of women is the bedrock of our society’s development and their
leadership, especially at the grassroots, is crucial for our inclusive and
sustainable progress.
At
the outset of the Ministerial Conference, Minister for Women & Child
Development and Minority Affairs, India, Smriti Zubin Irani, reminded the
participants of the core focus areas of India’s G20 Presidency. These include
Education: A Game-changing Pathway to Women’s Empowerment, Women’s
Entrepreneurship: A Win-Win for Equity and Economy, and Creating a Partnership
for Promoting Women’s Leadership at all Levels including Grassroots. An
essential enabler for all three has been Digital Inclusion. The Minister stated
that India had achieved several tangible takeaways and had several
differentiators – leadership of women at local or grassroots levels, a Jan Bhagidarior
Citizen’s engagement, and emphasis on women and climate change resilience.
Indeed, Minister Smriti Zubin Irani’s emphasis on women at the grassroots,
including India’s achievements on this front, were reflected in the fact that
the speakers at the conference included women achievers and drivers of change
at the grassroots. These included Hirabai Ibrahim Lodi, recipient of the Padma
Shri, India’s fourth highest award for civilians, for her work on women’s
empowerment and education. It also included Rasila Ben, India’s first female
forest guard and now Head of Rescue Department of the Gir National Park that
focuses on lion conservation. These inspiring women spoke at an international
conference for the first time.
India
calibrated efforts toward education with a focus on STEM and one of the
critical contributions of its presidency included ‘TechEquity’, a Digital Inclusion Platform through which girls and women can skill, upskill
and reskill themselves in digital literacy, financial literacy and other
technical subjects. With contributions from across G20 Member States, courses
in over 120 Indian and international languages will be available on the
platform. This platform will address the gender digital divide with an expected
outreach of 1 million girls and women. Indeed, during the Ministerial
Conference, the Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection,
Indonesia, I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati highlighted the importance of the
education and ensuring girls and women are equitably represented in
technology-related education. She stated that education is the key for a future
where women leaders are the norm and not the exception. The Vice Minister of
Women, Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Maria Helena Guarezi
emphasized the need to take action to ensure reduction in the gender pay gap.
Under
India’s Presidency, 149 model initiatives from 19 G20 countries have been added
to the Best Practices
Playbook for G20 EMPOWER,
substantially scaling up the insights and best practices from across industries
and businesses available to the public and private sectors. The Playbook has
been digitized to make it easily accessible. Previously, the Best Practices
Playbook had 3 focus areas; India added a new chapter in the EMPOWER playbook
to support women at the grassroots.
Such
importance of leadership of women at all levels was highlighted by Secretary,
Ministry of Women & Child Development, India, Indevar Pandey who stated
that such leadership is ever prevalent in India with the President of India
being a woman, along with the vast majority of frontline health workers and
members of Self-Help Groups.
For
the first time, the KPI
Dashboard for G20 EMPOWER
would look at the role of women in Small and Medium Enterprises.
India’s
Presidency has added substantially to G20 EMPOWER advocates (comprising
CEOs, association heads and other leaders) promoting women’s advancement. These
have increased from 380 to 544, with 100 of the new additions coming from
India. The G20 EMPOWER advocacy
pledge has also be updated
to strengthen commitments to gender equality.
73 inspirational stories from 9 G20
countries highlighted women surmounting barriers have been placed on the G20
EMPOWER website.
Under
India's Presidency, there has been emphasis on the need for gender
disaggregated data for improved decision-making, as well as on the role of
public-private partnerships for impact.
Over
300,000 citizens were engaged through Janbhagidari events
or Citizen Engagement to
showcase Women–Led Development. Women community leaders, artisans, Self Help
Groups, SMEs, corporates, and business entities from various states
participated in these events to make this is a truly people’s G20. The Chief Coordinator,
India’s G20 Presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla reflected on the wide-ranging
innovations towards citizen’s engagement ranging from walkathons to flashmobs,
as well as the broad range of participations and stories shared.
Minister
of State for Women & Child Development, India, Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai,
added that “When we discuss 'gender equality', it is a reflection of how, we,
as a nation have always recognized the abilities and potential of women and
consistently strived to support their empowerment.”
The
W20 engagement group added emphasis on the role of women in climate change
resilience with a first responders’ framework having been developed towards
this. This aligns with India’s Mission LiFE or Lifestyle for Environment. As
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi highlighted, women are brand ambassadors
for Mission LiFE as they, for example, reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose
waste based on traditional wisdom.
In
bilateral meetings held as part of the Ministerial Conference, G20 countries
expressed appreciation for the Poshan Tracker, a unique ICT platform developed
as a governance tool for monitoring nutrition services and early childhood care
service delivery for close to 100 million registered beneficiaries including
pregnant women, lactating mothers, children under 6 years of age and adolescent
girls across 1.4 million Anganwadi Centres. In line with India’s G20
motto of One Earth One Family One Future, India expressed readiness to assist
G20 countries to develop localised applications of the Poshan Tracker in the
area of nutrition and early childhood care to develop a healthy tomorrow.
At
the Ministerial Conference, along with the previous G20 EMPOWER and W20
meetings held under India’s Presidency, cultural performances, excursions and
cuisine were carefully curated to showcase the rich cultural heritage,
traditions & history of India. Exhibitions were organised to showcase
women-led development. Women community leaders, artisans, Self Help Groups and
entrepreneurs from various states exhibited their products with great
enthusiasm.
As
part of the Ministerial Conference, an exhibition organized by Ministry of
Women and Child Development in partnership with the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), was inaugurated by Minister for Women & Child Development and
Minority Affairs, India, Smriti Zubin Irani with Chief Minister of Gujarat as
the Chief Guest, Bhupendrabhai Patel. The exhibition titled ‘India@75:
Contribution of Women’ focused on women in craft; women in health; women in
trade and economy; women in STEM, science and technology; women in nutrition
and food; women in education and skill; women in sports; women in defence
services; and a showcase of Padma awardees. Innovative anamorphic content was
used to highlight women’s achievements in these areas. The exhibition showcased
innovations and products by women in new fields such as AI and Robotics, as
well as their work on car manufacturing in factories with 100% female workforce.
With
women-led development as the guiding light, India’s G20 presidency outlined
solutions tailored for women across education, entrepreneurship, technology,
finance and beyond. Partnerships were strengthened, mindsets shifted, and
policies transformed through camaraderie, consensus and teamwork.
Gender equality has been called “the greatest human
rights challenge of our time”, and through its presidency, India advanced the
G20’s role in meeting this challenge. Its legacy lies in enabling women’s
contributions across all levels of the economy and society through a presidency
which incisive, decisive and action- oriented for ‘One Earth, One Family, One
Future’ for the upliftment of not just women but humanity.
The baton now passes to Brazil to continue championing
women-led development. With consensus and collaboration at its core, India’s
legacy of gender-equitable policies and targeted interventions that have
reimagined women as architects of progress and development rather than being
passive recipients of the fruits of development shall continue to inspire
positive change.