Interactive discussion on “Women’s Empowerment and Obstacles in Achieving Social Equality”


Discussion in Progress
It has become widely understood that gender equality matters for development, economic growth and poverty reduction.  Improving women’s education, employment and health outcomes not only delivers benefits for women, but for whole communities and economies. Despite progress, girls and women continue to be discriminated in terms of access to proper health, education and employment. In every realm of society, the discrimination and inequality is deeply embedded in various forms and practices. Understanding the nature and extent of obstacles to gender equality is critical to designing effective policies to promote equality between men and women and consequently improving development outcomes. 

To discuss the broad facts and debates underlying women’s empowerment and social equality, and how Parliamentarians can contribute in making the government policies and programmes successful, GPPI-CPR organised an interactive discussion on “Women’s Empowerment and Obstacles in Achieving Social Equality” on 4th August 2016. The discussion was chaired by Ms. Vandana Chavan, Rajya Sabha MP - with a participation of 19 multi-party group of MPs from both Houses.

Dr Priya Nanda, Group Director, Social & Economic Department, Asia Regional Office, International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) and Dr. Aparajita Gogoi, Executive Director, Centre for Catalyzing Change (formely CEDPA), were the speakers for this discussion. The speakers presented broadly on how inequalities and discrimination is prevalent in the Indian society. In this context, the presenters provided several evaluations on policy and programs existing on women related issues in the country. Dr. Aparajita Gogoi presented on three broad aspects - How Gender and Heath Indicators are linked to each other, what are the main areas that we need to prioritize and the role of Parliamentarians in supporting changes in this context. Dr. Priya Nanda presented on the on the important factors impacting adolescent girl, emerging needs, the context of early marriage, child marriage, the vulnerabilities of intimate partner violence etc.