Cabinet nod to MoU to support gender equality in panchayats

The Cabinet today gave its nod for an MoU between India and UN-Women that will support governance institutions from the grassroot level to work towards gender equality.
The MoU, signed between India and the United Nations Entity of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN- Women), seeks to provide support to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in strengthening capacities of governance institutions to better leverage opportunities created for gender equality through legislation, policies and programmes.
It will also help in providing support to Panchayati Raj Institutions to maintain gender equality in their programmes.
Both the Ministry and UN-Women have already worked to promote participation of women in Panchayati Raj Institutions to focus on building capacities of Elected Women Representatives to empower them and enhance their effectiveness.

Given the past gains, the two parties will now work together towards participatory design of governance processes and effective implementation of laws, policies and programmes to promote gender responsive governance, an official release said.
Activities under this MoU will be implemented at the district and sub-district level in six states of Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Odisha, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.