Tirath to visit Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador

India will exchange views on new trends and developments in gender and child policy with Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador during the visit of union Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath to the two countries.

Tirath will be leading a ministerial delegation to both these countries May 29-31.

Besides exchanging views on current global developments in gender and child policy, the minister will explore the possibility of policy or technical cooperation with these nations, officials said.

During her visit, Tirath will call on the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago to discuss deeper humanitarian ties between the two nations, followed by a joint meeting with the ministers of foreign affairs, planning and sustainable development, industry and housing and the environment to discuss common challenges that the two nations face and explore possible collaborative solutions.

She will also be meeting the minister of gender and youth affairs of Trinidad and Tobago separately to discuss the issue of the rise in violence against women in both countries, as well as how each country can help the other in addressing this problem.

Officials said Tirath's official engagements also include meeting representatives of civil society organisations engaged with women- and children-related work in Trinidad and Tobago. She would also visit women and child welfare homes and the Belmont offices of Child Line, Coalition against Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Centre.

Tirath will also attend the India Arrival Day event which is celebrated every year on May 30 in Trinidad and Tobago, in memory of the first indentured labourers from India who arrived in the islands on that date in 1845.

The minister will then visit El Salvador, where she is to visit the 'Women City' project - 'Ciudad Mujer' project - a unique initiative led by El Salvador's ministry of social inclusion and supported by the Inter-American Development Bank.

This project seeks to improve the living conditions of Salvadoran women through an integrated focus and promotion of women's rights.