Curtains come down on Global gender equality summit

The three-day International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE-1) concluded here tonight with a call to build up a more inclusive world that recognises diversity and plurality.
Organised by Kerala government in association with UN Women, the debut edition of the biennial summit, attended by around 300 delegates from 35 countries, opined that a comprehensive agenda needs to address inequalities arising from gender, caste, race, ethnicity, age, religion, health, disability, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and gender identities in the global scenario.
Addressing the valedictory function, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said gender equality holds the key to economic growth, human development, grassroots level empowerment and the inclusion of women and trans genders in all walks of life.

"The world over, we are witnessing movements that are contributing towards gender equality. In the new world economic order, we cannot discuss economic growth and associated technologies like GDP and per capita income as attributes attached predominantly to men without mentioning the role of women," Chandy said.
While acknowledging that Indian women have made their presence felt in the army, he said "our nation is going through a disheartening phase when it comes to gender equality. Though our Constitution provides equal rights, there are forces at the grassroots level that work against the rights of women and gender minorities."
Chandy also said that if one is to take into account the shortcoming in gender equality, the first and foremost mechanism to improve the situation is through universal access to education.

Promising to create an inclusive environment for all genders and the disabled in the state, Social Justice Minister M K Muneer said binary norms of male and female do not work and it is important to broaden language to not just include trans gender, but also men and issues related to masculinity.
The government is preparing a state Gender Action Plan to address all these issues and make the state more gender-friendly, the minister said.
The challenges addressed in the conference were compiled in the ICGE closing ceremony and was released by Muneer.