Women-led development (WLD) focuses on empowering women to take the leadership, set agenda for development, drive innovation, and shape policies from the forefront.
Significance of WLD
- Inclusive Governance: It channelizes potential of women for actively shaping and driving economic, social, and political progress at all levels of governance.
- Gender Equality: Tackles generational inequality (Global Gender Gap Index 2024: India ranked 129th out of 146 countries) by breaking gender stereotypes and rejecting norms that sustain gender disparity.
- Economic Development: Underscores women role to achieve Government of India’s vision of ‘Developed India’ by 2047.
- As per National Family Health Survey study, advancing gender equality could potentially lead to 30% increase in India’s GDP.
- Entrepreneurship Development: Promotion of entrepreneurship among women including Tribals, Scheduled castes etc.
Challenges associated with WLD
- Climate change: Affects WLD by compromising work participation, health, food security, family etc.
- Gender digital divide: Only 15% of women in India have access to internet (Mobile Gender Gap 2021 Report).
- Education: Average female literacy rate throughout world is 79.9%, while India lags behind at 62.3%
- Others: Low Female Labour Force Participation Rate, mental health, reproductive health, domestic violence etc.
Initiatives taken for Women-led Development
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