– You are the future of India, said Agatha Sangma, India’s youngest Minister of State currently holding a position in the Ministry of Rural Development, to the two winners of the “Outstanding Women Panchayat Leaders Award”.
18th celebration
Women’s Political Empowerment Day was celebrated for the 18th time, and this year’s focus was on Panchayats, Women and Safe Drinking Water. The yearly celebrations are organized by Institute for Social Sciences, and the awards ceremony was followed by a two day conference where the role of village councils (Panchayati Raj), female representation and water issues were discussed.
Several distinguished guest were invited for the awards ceremony, such as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. Patrice Coeur-Bizot, Regional Programme Director for UN Women, Ms. Anne Stenhammer and Deputy Head of Mission for the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Mr. Aslak Brun.
Norway's support
Mr. Patrize Coeur-Bizot, UN Resident Coordinator, thanked Norway for generous contributions to the UN Women. Ms Anne Stenhammer highlighted how the Norwegian-supported programme is building capacity of female elected local representatives.
In his address, Mr. Aslak Brun, emphasized the leadership of the Government of India in these areas. The partnership between India and Norway is strengthened through the cooperation agreement (MoU) regarding local governance.
This unique collaboration was emphasized by the fact that Norway was the only country that was invited to the celebration of Women’s Political Empowerment Day. The Indian Ministry of rural development wishes to extend the cooperation with Norway.
The Ministry has been discussing how India can learn from the Norwegian experience of arranging the public budgets more towards gender equality. This is known as gender budgeting.