Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that handling “social waste” is just as important as physical waste while referring to communalism that maligns the entire society.
When attempts are being made to communalise faith, it is important to be able to differentiate between faith and communalism. Converting things associated with faith into symbols and slogans of violent communalism should be resisted.
Mr. Vijayan was delivering the inaugural address at a face-to-face with women held at the convention centre of the Cochin International Airport Limited in Kochi on February 22. He said that families, including women, should ensure that even children are able to put up such resistance.
The State Government has taken a serious note of atrocities and crimes targeting women and children. “The government is committed to bring criminals involved in such cases before the law no matter how influential they are. Examining recent incidents in the State will make it clear beyond doubt,” Mr. Vijayan said.
Timely action will be taken in cases of psychological and physical harassment targeted at women at workplaces and offices. Stern action will be taken against those who deny justice by delaying the delivery of justice, he said.
Kudumbashree set up with the purpose of empowering women is now a model for the entire world. Kudumbashree has grown into the biggest women empowerment agency with about 3 lakh neighbourhood groups and 45.85 lakh members. It has created a large society of economically and socially empowered women through a plethora of projects. The quarter century-old Kudumbashree has emerged as the State government’s most effective development agency, Mr. Vijayan said.
Education is undoubtedly the biggest enabler for women in Kerala, which has continuously registered the highest literacy rate in the country. We have achieved the feat of gender equality in general education long back. “Girls outnumber boys in enrolment in all except the technical education. Girls account for 64% of admissions in arts and science colleges and 81% in medical and allied sciences. Women of Kerala also top the list of those with professional qualification and higher education,” he said.
Kerala was the first State to introduce gender budgeting in the country. The State Government implemented the Gender Budget back in 2008. The Union Government, which perfunctorily implements gender budgeting has never allocated 6%of the budget for the purpose. Kerala’s Gender Budget this year is 21.50% of the Budget, which is historical. The State Government has been presenting the Gender Budget along with the annual budget without fail since 2017-18. The project share for women has consistently registered a rise in the last seven years. Special recruitment for women in police, formation of special women’s battalion and the formation of the Kerala Women’s Portal including the socio-economic-cultural data of women were also notable achievements.
Mr. Vijayan said that women are likely to be the greatest beneficiaries of the one lakh work-seats being created in tune with the changing job market world-wide. Women’s entrepreneurships accounted for 43,000 of the 1.39 lakh entrepreneurships created under the ‘one lakh entrepreneurships in one year’ programme. This means that women entrepreneurs accounted for 40% of the newly created startups in the State accounting for ₹1,500 crore out o the ₹8,000 crore investments. Nine women’s startups have received the Kerala Startup Mission’s productization grant in excess of ₹1 crore.
