India for comprehensive gender entity at UN

UNITED NATIONS - India favourd the early establishment of a comprehensive gender entity in the UN to serve as a focal point for all its gender related activities and programmes.

It should be well-resourced and should be carefully conceived and designed to mainstream the interests of women and serve their cause, Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said Friday.

Speaking at the 54th session of commission on the status of women on the implementation of the Beijing declaration and platform for action, he said gender equality and women’s empowerment lie at the heart of development and distributive justice.

Empowering women was the most effective tool for development as well as for poverty reduction and an essential pre-requisite for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, Puri said.

The agenda of development will remain incomplete in so long as it excludes more than half the world’s population, he said, declaring India was resolutely committed to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.

“It is critical that the international community lives up to its commitments of financial resources, technical cooperation and capacity-building for developing countries in meeting their national priorities in the areas of gender empowerment,” he said.

More than 80 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had declared in the Indian context that as long as women did not take part in public life, there was no salvation for the country. Puri recalled and said: “This is equally true for every corner of the globe.”

Quoting from “Manusmriti”, one of India ancient scriptures, Puri said: “The time for genuine and full empowerment of women is here and now.”

“This is an idea whose time has truly come, but whose realisation we must all now work to ensure at the earliest,” he said.