By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala government released Tuesday a draft for women’s policy. It includes formation of a gender board.
The gender board will coordinate with various government departments, which will look into the allocation and utilization of funds for women.
The new board will replace the recently constituted Gender Advisory Committee. An allocation for the board has been made in the recent budget.
Releasing the draft here, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said that a committee of women had prepared it.
“We will now put up the draft for discussions and anyone can add their suggestions. We will give a reasonable time and then it would be put before the cabinet for approval,” the minister told reporters.
Explaining the new policy, T.N. Seema, one of the committee members who prepared the draft, said that one of the primary aims was to see that the atrocities against women should become zero.
“The proposed gender board will have more power. We propose to strengthen jagrana samithies (awakening committees) through networking with police stations and also with the Women’s Commission. We aim to see that atrocities against women in Kerala be eradicated in five years time,” said Seema.
She said the proposed policy, among others, would address the issues of health, employment and equality of women.
The indicators where Kerala women lead the rest of the country include a high sex ratio with 1,000 men to 1,058 women, while the national ratio is 1,000 men to 933 women.
Likewise, the average life expectancy of Kerala women stands at 76 years while the national average is 61.8 years.