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National Policy on Women: Factoring gender
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The draft National Policy on Women is a progressive document advocating legislative changes and gendered approaches. But will other ministries comply?

The draft National Policy on Women, released by ministry of women and child development (WCD), is a progressive document in tune with the times but the challenge will be to bridge the gap between policy and implementation. There is considerable emphasis on the conditions of single women, migrants and the elderly in the draft document. The new policy will replace the 2001 National Policy for Empowering Women and reflects the social, economical and technological changes of the past 15 years. However, the policy does not offer many insights into future challenges and runs the risk of being outdated even before its prescribed road map for the next 15 or 20 years. Those challenges characterised as “emerging issues” in the policy document like cyber crime, the pluracy of personal laws, artificial reproductive techniques, redistribution of gender roles, and the rights of single women, have been recognised for nearly a decade now. In a significant departure, the policy also marks a shift from a welfare-oriented approach on gender issues to a rights-based approach. The earlier welfarist approach was criticised for not being ambitious enough.

The challenge in advocating a rights-based approach is that the government must focus on rolling out legislations and then ensure that the laws are enforced. In recent years, the fate of many rights-based approaches like the Right to Education Act, Right to Information Act, MGNREGA and the food security legislation hardly inspires confidence. Nevertheless, the draft policy document promises to ensure better coordination between ministries, offer specific and achievable action points and targets, follow gender-based budgeting norms, and focus on data collection. What this implies is that the WCD ministry has to convince other ministries to factor in the policy’s thrust areas. For example, on the policy’s promise to universalise the Maternity Benefit Act, the WCD ministry will have to liaise with the labour ministry to ensure that the private sector falls in line. The policy also notes that cyber crime and harassment of women through mobile phones and social media is on the rise but the regulatory framework has not kept pace with the technological changes. But ever since Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act was scrapped, the communications and IT ministry has failed to combat the growing menace of online trolling, which has viciously targeted women.

The gender aspect of any public policy intervention is now gaining increasing attention within the government and in many cases is being seen as an important ingredient in the success or failure of any scheme. Title deeds are now being given to women rather than menfolk and governments are distributing cycles and laptops to school and college-going girls. Women have been the primary focus of the Swachh Bharat Mission’s toilet-building and sanitation programmes. But the emphasis on women’s participation in development activities and their empowerment can have a salutary effect only when it accompanies larger social changes. One of the blatant realities of India today is that the lives of a large number of women continue to be governed by patriarchal structures rather than the law of the land. Their freedom to — study, love, marry, work, have sex, give birth, divorce, re-marry, or resist abuse — are governed by family and social mores. The policy pins its hope on gender sensitisation to wean away families from these patriarchal moorings. But the message of gender sensitisation has not travelled far enough through the educational or welfare systems. In its silence on marital rape, the document reflects the WCD ministry’s inability to tackle the issue for the next 15 years. Nevertheless, the draft has important suggestions for those framing policies on climate change, infrastructure, transportation, social security, agriculture, industry and the service sector. Both government departments and the private sector must pay heed to its formulations.