Draft national policy focuses on single women, cyber crime

“This policy is coming after 15 years and in these years many things have changed. One of the things that has changed is women’s attitude towards themselves,” said WCD Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi.

 

She added the policy, which would replace the 2001 policy, provided a roadmap for dealing with women’s issues for the next 15-20 years and. It would be finalised after consultation with all stakeholders, including NGOs, civil society among others, she said.

“We have also started segregating ourselves there are single women, those who work from home, married, divorced, widowed. Our issues are the same – security, economic uplift and nutrition, but each of these issues is even more refined now,” she said, while releasing the draft policy.

The policy focuses on tackling crime against women such as rape, trafficking and dowry, along with the expansion of new career opportunities for women. 

“The draft has been made in consultation with a lot of women, lawyers, journalists, bureaucrats and non-working women to see what we can do in terms of defining government action in the next 15-20 years,” she said. 

“With technological advancements, there has been incidences of fraud, misuse of information uploaded on the cyberspace, and hence, there is a need for developing protecting measures for citizens keeping in view that victims of such frauds are largely women,” the policy states.

The policy describes making cyber space a safe place for women, redistribution of gender roles for reducing unpaid care work, review of   personal and customary laws, in accordance with the Constitutional provisions, review of criminalisation of marital rape within the framework women’s human rights etc. Gandhi said the new Policy shifts the focus from entitlement to rights and from empowerment to creating an enabling environment.