Maharashtra government unveil 4th Women's Policy

The Maharashtra government on Friday unveiled the states Womens Policy on the occasion of International Womens Day The policy the fourth after the ones announced in 1994 2001 and 2014 aims for comprehensive and allinclusive development of women with focus on eight areasThese are health nutrition and wellbeing education and skill development ending sexual and gender based violence gender responsive livelihood enhancement gender inclusive infrastructure gender responsive governance and political participation gender sensitive natural resource management climate change adaptation and disaster management as well as an exclusive sports policy Announcing the policy state Women and Child Welfare Minister Aditi Tatkare said free health checkup camps in underserviced remote and hardtoreach areas across urban rural and tribal areas will be undertakenImproved diagnostic services at all government health facilities up to Primary Health Centre PHC level will be provided for polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS endocrine cancer urinary tract infections UTIs TB menopausal issues with improved referral systems she said Initiation of demandbased day care centres in establishments with a high number of women and provision of day care facilities in special industrial areas commerce zones will be the aim of the policyThere will be 100 per cent enrolment and retention of adolescent girls in schools at secondary and senior secondary levels in remote and underserved pockets across rural urban and tribal areas The state will be categorised into industrial zones to tailor skill development programs to the unique needs and strengths of each region Such categorization will take into account consider factors like literacy levels and the migration patterns of women Tatkare saidTo end sexual and genderbased violence an internal committee as stipulated in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Prevention Prohibition and Redressal Act will have to be formed as per the policy while Bharosa Cell will set up at all police headquartersWomen play a significant role in agriculture especially in rural areas but they often face challenges due to the lack of access to appropriate and easytouse machinery Industries will be encouraged to create womenfriendly agricultural machinery as it is a crucial step towards gender inclusive agriculture development the minister saidSelf Help Groups SHGs will be considered for providing dedicated space for establishing stalls in municipal council and corporation area while hostels will be established for women engaged in informal work including seasonal workers such as sugarcane cutters and others as per the policyWorking womens hostels will be provisioned at the district level and in all cities offering high quality services safety and security Developing a comprehensive training module for elected women representatives covering leadership planning budgeting programme management implementation and monitoring and evaluation will also be taken up she said quoting the policyAs per the policy capacities of women will be enhanced to promote their participation and leadership primarily to mitigate and adapt to climate change effective disaster response and risk reduction while women living in coastal areas will be oriented to Coastal Regulation Zone CRZ and allied environmental regulationsAn exclusive sports policy for women and sportspersons will cover infrastructure training financial assistance and allied support she said The difference between the fourth policy and others is that an implementation plan has been prepared Benchmarks have been set to measure progress of policy implementation Responsibilities of various departments have been defined To review the implementation of this policy threelevel committees have been formed Tatkare saidThese comprise a high power committee chaired by the chief minister the state task force under the women and child development minister and a districtlevel committee led by the respective guardian minister she informedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever