The state government has decided to bring a new women policy to cope up with the challenges posed in various socio-economic sectors exposing the gender disparity and higher crime rates in the urban centres.
The state government has decided to bring a new women policy to cope up with the challenges posed in various socio-economic sectors exposing the gender disparity and higher crime rates in the urban centres.
The ministry of women and child welfare, which is the nodal agency, has initiated the process by constituting 12 committees to study different aspects related to the policy. The biggest concern relates to the skewed sex ratio in the economically developed districts of Maharashtra leading with Mumbai (832:1,000), which requires to be tackled through multi-pronged strategy.
The decline in the girl child ratio was not so prevalent when state government adopted its first comprehensive women policy in 1994 during chief minister Sharad Pawar’s tenure.
The new policy will look into 12 parameters vis a vis women and technology, women and agriculture, women and industry, women and tourism, women and culture, women and health and women and education. What has driven the government to take a re-look at the policy is the rising instances of crime against women in Information & Technology sector in urban centres and atrocities against dalits and tribals in rural areas. The state IT hub Pune in 2009-10 registered a crime growth of 5.8%.
The incidents of atrocities against women in the name of caste and religion reported across state also show an increase of 10%.
The state economic survey shows an average decline of 10% workforce (men and women) in agriculture sector to non-agriculture sector in rural areas, which makes the women more vulnerable in unorganised sectors in absence of strong labour and security laws.
A senior officer in ministry of women and welfare said, “The women are looking for new sectors for employment with shrinking job placements in government where the timing was 10am to 6pm. Now, in call centres and tourism sectors they are engaged in shift duties including night shifts.”
The new policy needs to address the security aspects provided by the private sectors for women employees, which are found lacking in absence of strict laws.
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