Washington, Dec 29: India is facing "very very big" challenges in gender justice, a top UN Women official has said, adding that the government has "prioritised" women's issues in its policies and programmes but there is a need for greater momentum.
Lakshmi Puri, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of UN Women, called for setting up special courts for hearing cases of violence against women and providing gender-responsive training to police.
She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prioritised women issues in his policies and programmes.
"He (Modi) has prioritised it (gender equality and gender issues) in every programme, every mission that he has launched. He has put gender equality in the middle of that. Jan Dhan Yojana is a very big win for women. In Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, he is highlighting more gender-related issues. Similarly, Skills India, Digital India..." she told PTI.
Considered a guiding force in driving the women related agenda of the UN, Puri said, "We would, of course, like to see greater momentum in regard to some of these initiatives going forward."
Puri, who was acting head of UN Women from March to August 2013, noted that the challenges being faced by India in the arena of women equality and gender justice are "very very big".
In addition to addressing the challenges being faced by women in cities, she underscored the need for safety of women in rural areas in India.
"Rural women face different types of violence and the more disadvantaged amongst them, marginalised amongst them, the poorest face different types of violence. So that needs to be addressed. The number, the scale, the scope of the challenges are so big that sometimes the impact cannot be seen immediately, she said.
Despite India making considerable progress in the last 70 years, the country is still facing the challenge of patriarchal social and cultural norms that hold back women, she rued.
There is still high-level of girl aversion and boy preference which has led to sex selection, against which Prime Minister Modi launched the beti bachao, beti padhao campaign, she added.
"We have progressed considerably in the last 70 years. Whether you're looking at women's economic empowerment, whether you're looking at consciousness about gender equality and women's empowerment. Whether you're looking at political participation and leadership, there is some progress, she said.
On this whole issue of violence against women, what I see as progress is the consciousness and people recognising particularly domestic violence and its criminalisation. That's a really big, Puri said in response to a question.
While women have made considerable progress in the education field, but translating that to their participation in the formal workforce and access to finance has been disturbing, she said.
Now preparing to leave the UN Women to join her husband Hardeep Puri, the Union Minister of State with Independent Charge in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, next month, Lakshmi Puri said there is a need for greater representation of women in the Parliament and judiciary.
She joined the UN 14 years ago through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as Director of the flagship Division of Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities of UNCTAD and then as Acting Deputy Secretary- General.
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India facing huge challenges in gender justice: UN Women official
Agencies
December 29, 2017
Air India's first evacuation flight from London to take off today
News Network
May 9,2020
London, May 9: Air India's first evacuation flight from London will be taking off for Mumbai today.
The screening of passengers is underway.
"Air India's first evacuation flight from London taking off for Mumbai today at 1200. Flight is 100% booked! Shubh Yatra. Please stay in touch. GoI working to send more evacuation flights!" High Commission of India, London said in a tweet.
On Monday, India announced had that it will begin phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7.
The government said that Air India will operate 64 flights in the first week from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals.
On day three of the 'Vande Bharat Mission', flights carrying Indians from the Gulf countries, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Malaysia will arrive in India.
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Iranian Vice President infected with coronavirus, toll rises to 26
News Network
February 28,2020
Tehran, Feb 28: The coronavirus epidemic in Iran has cost 26 lives, the health ministry announced Thursday, with a vice president becoming the latest top official to be infected as the spread appeared to accelerate.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that the tally of infections had risen to 245 with 106 more cases confirmed -- the highest number for a single day since Iran announced its first infections on February 19.
The Islamic republic has the highest death toll from the virus outside China, where COVID-19 first emerged.
Among the latest coronavirus sufferers is one of Iran's seven vice presidents, Massoumeh Ebtekar, who oversees women's affairs.
Ebtekar, a former spokeswoman for students who took 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, is being treated at home and members of her team have been tested, state news agency IRNA reported.
Mojtaba Zolnour, head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee, also contracted the virus, appearing in a video posted by Fars news agency saying he was in self-quarantine.
The cleric is a deputy for the Shiite holy city of Qom in central Iran where the country's first cases were detected.
According to media reports, among the deceased in Qom on Thursday was theologian Hadi Khroroshahi, who in 1981 was named Iran's first ambassador to the Vatican.
The announcement by Zolnour comes two days after another top official, deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi, head of the government's coronavirus task force, said he too had contracted the virus.
On Wednesday, Iranian authorities announced domestic travel restrictions for people with confirmed or suspected infections.
They also placed curbs on access to major Shiite pilgrimage sites, including the Imam Reza shrine in second city Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom.
Visitors to the shrines will be allowed to visit on condition they are provided "with hand-washing liquids, proper (health) information, masks", Health Minister Saeed Namaki said.
They must "not gather together in groups but just pray and leave", he said.
In a rare move, authorities announced the cancellation of the main Friday weekly prayers in Tehran, Qom and Mashhad as well as in the capitals of 22 of Iran's 31 provinces and other infected areas.
"All of these decisions are temporary and if the situation changes, we might intensify or ease them," Namaki said.
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Long-lasting global recession likely as corona devastates lives, livelihoods
News Network
May 19,2020
May 18: Risk managers expect a prolonged global recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a report by the World Economic Forum showed on Tuesday.
Two-thirds of the 347 respondents to the survey - carried out in response to the outbreak - put a lengthy contraction in the global economy top of their list of concerns for the next 18 months.
Half of risk managers expected bankruptcies and industry consolidation, the failure of industries to recover and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the young.
“The crisis has devastated lives and livelihoods. It has triggered an economic crisis with far-reaching implications and revealed the inadequacies of the past," said Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum.
Environmental goals risk being discarded as a result of the pandemic, the report said, but governments should try to carve out a "green recovery".
"We now have a unique opportunity to use this crisis to do things differently and build back better economies that are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive," Zahidi said.
The report was compiled by the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Advisory Board together with Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc and Zurich Insurance Group.
Risk managers were surveyed between April 1 and 13.
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