Sanjay Gupta, Secretary, Planning Department and CEO of Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, on Wednesday said efforts were on to increase women s participation in the economic development of the State through a specific 2019-24 action plan.
Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day conclave on Improving Economic Participation of Women in Andhra Pradesh, organised by the State Planning Department in collaboration with the National Foundation for India, Delhi, Mr. Gupta said Andhra Pradesh was looking at 12% growth.
To sustain this growth, we need to ensure active participation of women who comprise 50% of the population, in all spheres, he said.
Mr. Gupta said the State had astutely prioritised the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and that the government had taken a host of measures to align its development agenda to SDGs and it was committed to achieving most of the SDGs by 2022. While the theme of the conclave was largely related to Goal 5 — achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, it had a strong impact on most of the other goals too. He said to achieve the SDGs, the State had set 17 goals on 42 themes. Implementation of 24 themes was at various stages and 18 of them were at the initial stages. The idea was to achieve all the goals by 2022, he added.
He said women s participation in society had come down in the last 15 years due to various factors and stressed the need to create a conducive atmosphere for the fairer sex to come forward and become part of the development process.
Malnourishment
Pam Rajput, Member, NITI Ayog Working Group on Gender, said comparing to other States in the country, women in A.P. were far better as far as their role in the development process was concerned. She said women should be allowed 50 % participation in every sector, including in legislative bodies, for true development to become a reality.
Secretary of the Department of Women and Child Welfare H. Arun Kumar emphasised the need to focus on addressing the problem of malnourishment of adolescent girls resulting in anaemia.
Creating safe environment in work places was also imperative, he said.