New gender policy on anvil in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A state with relatively high gender sensitivity, Kerala has decided to take gender empowerment to a higher orbit. The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment policy, which was prepared during the UDF tenure and has been slightly tweaked and approved by the LDF government, will introduce ‘gender mainstreaming’ (GM) in all entities financed in full or part by public funds. GM requires that gender perspectives are made an integral part of all development activities and interventions.

"This will require integration of gender considerations across all programmes, policy development, research, advocacy, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects," the draft policy states. The draft also states that each entity receiving public funds from the state or central government must prepare a gender action plan as an annex to its overall planning document. This action plan will include a brief note on the specific gender issues in the sector and assessment on whether existing approaches and programmes are consistent with the new GEWE policy and, if not, what steps are being proposed.

What's more, each entity should appoint a staff member as a gender resource person (GRP). "At least 50 percent of the GRP's time should be assigned for gender-related responsibilities," the draft policy states. Gender concerns have traditionally been a major component of the state's programmes. Gender budgeting, for instance, was started in 1998 under which local governments were asked to allocate at least 10 percent of their plan funds specifically for women.

And then, the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act in 2009 reserved 50 percent seat in local governments for women. There is high level of female literacy and birth related biases are non-existent. Female health standards too are of developed-world standards. However, there continues to be high levels of gender inequalities at the economic, social and political levels. Despite the educational attainments of women, gender-based violence against the fairer sex is prevalent in the state. Kerala is among the top six states in terms of violence against women.