Make women a priority if you want an empowered future: Smriti Irani

The highly anticipated G20 EMPOWER summit commenced in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, marking a significant milestone in the global effort to foster collaboration and empowerment.The Summit had a total participation of over 300 participants (263 domestic participants and 70 international delegates). The international delegates were from 13 G20 and 4 guest countries and 8 International Organisations. These included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UK, USA, Bangladesh, The Netherlands, Spain, UAE, WTO, ISA, UN Women, UN, UNICEF, ILO, World Bank and ADB.

In her address union minister for women and child development Ms Smriti Irani on Tuesday expressed the hope that TechEquity, a Digital Inclusion platform developed and launched at the Summit under India’s G20 Presidency would be of value and use for women around the world in education and subsequently as an enabler for transition and progression in careers, particularly in STEM. The platform has been designed to enable women from across the world to educate and upskill themselves on digital literacy, financial literacy and technical areas through training programs and resources provided on the platform. With courses being submitted by G20 Members and Guest Countries, it is envisaged that these courses will be available in 120 international and Indian languages. The platform envisages an outreach of 1 million users,internationally.  “Make women a priority if you want to grow with equity and equality. Make women a priority if you want an empowered future”,she said.

Chief of Staff, Office of Executive Director, UN Women, Mohammad Naciri lauded India for undertaking a women-led development approach. He highlighted that this shift in semantics from development for women to women-led development creates a seismic shift in power which turns women from beneficiaries to contributors. To the 'One Earth, One Family, One Future' motto of G20 announced by India, he added ‘One Chance’ to signify that we have one more chance to get back on track to a future that is sustainable and the key to doing so lies in gender equality.

The Minister of State, Women & Child Development, Dr Munjpara Mahendra recognized that narrowing the digital gender divide is crucial for empowering women to contribute more effectively to economic growth and for that, we need to focus on improving women’s access to basic and advanced digital resources, education, entrepreneurship opportunities, and leadership roles for women and girls. There is also an urgent need to collect gender-disaggregated data to understand the dynamics of the digital gender gap.

Chair, G20 EMPOWER, Dr Sangita Reddy highlighted that to truly empower women, there is need to nurture their roles in leadership and decision-making across all levels of society, with the G20 EMPOWER recommendations representing a significant stride towards that goal. As a first under India’s Presidency, 73 Inspirational Stories from 9 countries have been curated on the G20 EMPOWER Website to highlight success stories of women achievers from across G20 nations and invited countries to motivate the next generation of girls and women. India has emphasized Citizens’ Engagement across its policy action. With the goal of making this a truly people’s G20, 51 Jan Bhagidari or citizen engagement events were held under EMPOWER to disseminate the message of women’s empowerment and underlying actions to over 100,000 people.

Indevar Pandey, Secretary Women and Child Development remarked that the  Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, envisions a new India where women play an equal and pivotal role in driving robust, sustainable, and inclusive growth. During India's presidency, there has been a strong determination to uphold the commitment to global progress, with women at the core of achieving success in the interconnected pillars of People, Planet, and Prosperity.