INDIAN YOUTH CLUB’s initiative regarding women and child development are as following:
Goal and Objectives
The goal of this aim is to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. The aim will be widely disseminated so as to encourage active participation of all stakeholders for achieving its goals. Specifically, the objectives of this Policy include Indian youth club is creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential. The jure and facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres – political, economic, social, cultural and civil. Equal access to women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office etc. Also we are changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women and elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and the girl child.
Policy Prescriptions & Judicial Legal Systems
Legal-judicial system will be made more responsive and gender sensitive to women’s needs, especially in cases of domestic violence and personal assault. New laws will be enacted and existing laws reviewed to ensure that justice is quick and the punishment meted out to the culprits is commensurate with the severity of the offence. At the initiative of and with the full participation of all stakeholders including community and religious leaders, the Policy would aim to encourage changes in personal laws such as those related to marriage, divorce, maintenance and guardianship so as to eliminate discrimination against women.
Women’s equality in power sharing and active participation in decision making, including decision making in political process at all levels will be ensured for the achievement of the goals of empowerment. All measures will be taken to guarantee women equal access to and full participation in decision making bodies at every level, including the legislative, executive, judicial, corporate, statutory bodies, as also the advisory Commissions, Committees, Boards, and Trusts etc. Affirmative action such as reservations/quotas, including in higher legislative bodies, will be considered whenever necessary on a time bound basis. Women–friendly personnel policies will also be drawn up to encourage women to participate effectively in the developmental process.
Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in the Development Process dies that were commissioned by the Department of Women & Child Development, it is evident that there is a need for re-framing policies for access to employment and quality of employment. Benefits of the growing global economy have been unevenly distributed leading to wider economic disparities, the feminization of poverty, increased gender inequality through often deteriorating working conditions and unsafe working environment especially in the informal economy and rural areas. Strategies will be designed to enhance the capacity of women and empower them to meet the negative social and economic impacts, which may flow from the globalization process.
Equal access to education for women and girls will be ensured. Special measures will be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical skills by women. Reducing the gender gap in secondary and higher education would be a focus area. Sectoral time targets in existing policies will be achieved, with a special focus on girls and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities. Gender sensitive curricula would be developed at all levels of educational system in order to address sex stereotyping as one of the causes of gender discrimination.
Violence against women :
All forms of violence against women, physical and mental, whether at domestic or societal levels, including those arising from customs, traditions or accepted practices shall be dealt with effectively with a view to eliminate its incidence. Institutions and mechanisms/schemes for assistance will be created and strengthened for prevention of such violence , including sexual harassment at work place and customs like dowry; for the rehabilitation of the victims of violence and for taking effective action against the perpetrators of such violence. A special emphasis will also be laid on programmes and measures to deal with trafficking in women and girls.
Rights of the Girl Child :
All forms of discrimination against the girl child and violation of her rights shall be eliminated by undertaking strong measures both preventive and punitive within and outside the family. These would relate specifically to strict enforcement of laws against prenatal sex selection and the practices of female foeticide, female infanticide, child marriage, child abuse and child prostitution etc. Removal of discrimination in the treatment of the girl child within the family and outside and projection of a positive image of the girl child will be actively fostered. There will be special emphasis on the needs of the girl child and earmarking of substantial investments in the areas relating to food and nutrition, health and education, and in vocational education. In implementing programmes for eliminating child labour, there will be a special focus on girl children.
WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA
No nation can achieve a sustained, high and equitable growth without the development of its human resources. Women and children form nearly two-thirds of our population.
A phrase commonly used in the legal parlance is the thing speaks for itself. In other words, a case argues itself. The phrase aptly applies to the development of women and children – a development which speaks for itself, a development which is in the interest of the entire nation. However, it is a sad commentary on all of us that far from being given their rights, women and children are by and large being assailed from all sides by attitudes which serve only to plunge them even deeper into the abyss of ignorance and type-cast roles.
ISSUES
Issues of malnutrition, illiteracy, health, hygiene and sanitation, gender inequalities, bias against the girl child and women both within and outside the family, lack of access to opportunities and increasing rate of crime against them are some of the basic issues of rights which are of deep concern to all of us. Recognizing this fact, the Government created a separate Department for the development of women and children in 1985, with the purpose of ensuring, through a process of partnership and cooperation with other Departments, human and social development of almost the entire two-thirds of the country’s population.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Don’t be fooled by India’s economic boom – for much of the population the situation has not improved in generations. Hundreds of millions are trapped by caste and gender discrimination, and by the cycle of: poverty–> child labour–>no education–>poverty. These people endure some of the worst conditions experienced anywhere in the world. For instance, an Indian child is more likely to be malnourished, have inadequate sanitation, not attend school, remain illiterate and marry underage, than is a child from Africa or any other global region.
Perhaps the most disadvantaged group in India are the millions of street children who live or work on the street. Street children have fallen through society’s cracks – there are few ladders for them to climb back up. They live as their parents did and as their own children are likely to live.
Children live and work on the street because their parents are poor, they are orphans, or they have run away from home, often to escape abuse. They are invariably malnourished, receive scant education and medical treatment, and are involved in child labour from an early age. Child prostitution, sexual abuse and drug addictions are also major problems faced. Despite being citizens of the same country, these children live in a different world than the children of the emerging middle class. Taken as a separate nation, they represent one of the neediest peoples on the planet.