Policy on women's empowerment in budget

The State government will announce a separate policy on women empowerment in the upcoming budget, Women and Child Development Minister Umashree has said.

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Role of Women Elected Representatives in Nation Building’ here on Monday, the minister said that  efforts were on to create a separate policy on child protection and that public opinion was being collated at the district level.

Already, a policy was being drafted to protect the interest of sexual minorities, which would be brought before the Cabinet shortly. A committee has been set up to study the grievances of sex workers. The minister said that the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 would be amended to make the rules more stringent.

The other focus area would be to ensure land to landless women and facilities to women agricultural labourers.

Speaking on ‘Good governance and law’, advocate Sumitra Acharya said that though there were several legislations in place for development of women, the irony was that very few of them were being enforced effectively.