India says gender parity achieved across all levels of education, prioritising bridging gender pay gap

 India Tuesday said it has achieved gender parity across all levels of education and is now prioritising increasing women's workforce participation in non-conventional sectors and bridging gender pay gaps and the digital divide.

Delivering the country statement at the UN Ministerial Conference on women empowerment here, Preetam B Yashwant, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, said India has worked on gender-responsive solutions to reduce "time poverty" of women such as clean cooking fuels, tap water connections and construction of toilets.

"Aligned to regional trends demonstrating reduced inequalities in education, today, I am happy to share that India has achieved gender parity across all levels of education. We have one of the highest proportions of women in STEM disciplines globally," he said.

Yashwant said that India has adopted a multi-pronged approach to address the issues of women on a life-cycle continuum basis for their educational, social, economic and political empowerment.

"From mitigation of gender poverty gap through saturation of green, gender-responsive solutions that reduce women's time poverty such as clean cooking fuels, tap water connections, and construction of toilets, India has foregrounded large-scale policies that reduce women's drudgery, provide social protection, and enable their economic empowerment," he said.

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review began here on Tuesday, bringing together over 1,200 delegates from governments, civil society and youth groups, the private sector and academia to discuss progress and priority actions to support gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Jointly organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN-Women, the three-day conference in Bangkok is being held ahead of next year's 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

"India's implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action draws from our constitutionally ordained principle of equality, and is inspired from our commitment to CEDAW. Guided by the vision of Women-led development, India has witnessed a paradigm shift in governance to ensure that women lead the way as architects in the conceptualization, design and monitoring of the measures that shape our development trajectory," Yashwant said.

"At the cusp of the timelines for Agenda 2030 and to achieve our vision of becoming a developed economy, another one of our key priorities is increasing women’s workforce participation, including in non-conventional sectors," he added.

The official said that going forward, the country has prioritised sustained interventions and streamlined effective implementation of laws on women’s safety, including for domestic and public spaces and workplaces, augmented investments in building affordable and quality women care homes infrastructure and increased focus on gender-just society including political empowerment and decision-making roles.

"We are also focusing on bridging the gender pay gap, gender digital divide and better health, well-being and nutritional outcomes that has also been reflected in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration under India's G20 Presidency.

"India's commitment to achieving gender equality is evidenced by over 218 per cent decadal increase in gender budgeting, with current year’s allocation worth USD 37 billion," he added.

Yashwant noted that India has fast-tracked financial inclusion of women in less than a decade, and over 300 million women have bank accounts today.

"Envisioning Self Help Groups as vehicles of change, today 100 million women are transforming the rural landscape economically, and taking greater leadership at the grassroots level. India has fast-tracked financial inclusion of women in less than a decade. Over 300 million women today have bank accounts under the world’s largest financial inclusion programme," he said.

At the conference, ESCAP and UN Women also launched a new report Charting New Paths for Gender Equality and Empowerment "Asia-Pacific Regional Report on Beijing+30 Review".

The report highlights the challenges ahead, but also forward-looking strategies and solutions under six thematic areas -- poverty reduction and human capital development; shared prosperity and decent work; freedom from gender-based violence; meaningful participation and gender-responsive governance; peaceful and just societies; and gender and the environment.