Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 14: Member J&K Legislative Council Dr Shehnaz Ganai presently on tour to United States of America to attend International visitor leadership programme, today met the Legislatures of Louisiana State, at Louisiana State Capital Buildind in United States.
The main objective of the meeting was to share the ideas on women empowerment across the globe. The interactive session was presided over by Regina Borrow, Louisiana State Representative.
Dr Ganai while speaking on the occasion stressed for need to establish Legislative Women’s Caucus in every country comprising of women legislatures and Parliamentarians with a collective mission of preparing next generation of women leaders and serving as premier voice and leading monitor issues. The role of the caucus should be to empower women socially and politically, to take up gender concerns through the institutional structures of the Parliament ensuring that norms promoting women’s rights and empowerment get translated into national legislations and to coordinate and communicate with major women’s organizations both in the public and private sectors outside the Parliament to oversee and extend support to implementation of gender sensitive policies and programmes.
Dr Ganai said that late Madr-e-Meharban Begum Noor Jahan, Parliamentarian, a great leader and a social worker of Jammu and Kashmir, was an ardent advocate of women’s rights. She also strived for creating effective forums for women empowerment and representation. She articulated a multi-dimensional approach to enhancing women’s role as Parliamentarians and history speaks that women are the best leaders.
While referring to Indo- US relations Dr Ganai said that India and United States can work together to strengthen the regime of women empowerment by striving to remove the barriers to women participation in politics. The various issues of gender discrimination can be tackled by active collaboration between the two Governments, by exchange programmes between the Women Groups of the two countries.
Dr Ganai said that the Government of India has directed States and local Governments to promote equality by class and gender including equal pay and free legal aid, humane working conditions and maternity relief, rights to work and education, and raising the standard of living. She said that a broader measure of political participation includes number of women candidates who compete for elections and women in State Assemblies.
According to World Economic Forum’s annual global gender gap index studies, which considers such a broader scale, India has been ranked in top 20 countries worldwide for many years, with 9th best in 2013 – a score reflecting more women’s participation in India’s political process than Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France and United Kingdom, she said.
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