[{"bbox": [85, 154, 323, 187], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 220, 234, 247], "category": "Section-header", "text": "2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [96, 266, 1134, 399], "category": "Text", "text": "India is recognised as the fastest growing major world economy and plays a critical role in determining the success of the SDGs globally. India's strong economic growth over the past decade has supported development and modernisation. However, the country continues to face challenges in reducing poverty and promoting social justice and equality, and these challenges impact heavily on poor and vulnerable groups, among others on women and girls."}, {"bbox": [96, 424, 1134, 638], "category": "Text", "text": "The principle of Gender Equality (GE) is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, as well as in the Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. The National Policy for the Empowerment of Women was formulated in 2001. The goal of this Policy is to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. In 2016, the Union Government of India unveiled the Draft National Policy for Women aimed at “re-scripting” women’s empowerment by following a “socially inclusive, rights-based approach”¹¹. It was released by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD). However this policy is yet to be adopted by the parliament."}, {"bbox": [96, 663, 1134, 1115], "category": "Text", "text": "Numerous laws protect women's rights, such as the Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), the Equal Remuneration Act (1987), the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Misuse) Act (1994) and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (2005). More recently, the Companies Act 2013 mandates every listed company and public company with a paid-up share capital of over 1 Billion Rupees (approximately EUR 11 million) or a turnover of at least 3 Billion (approximately EUR 34 million) to appoint at least one woman director. The Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 mandates companies with 10 employees or more to have mechanisms in place to address instances of sexual harassment at the workplace. The World Bank 2022 Women, Business and the Law index, acknowledges the relatively good performance of India's regulatory business framework with a score of 74.4 out of 100. When it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women's decisions to work, and constraints related to marriage, India is considered to be performing very well. However, when it comes to laws affecting women's pay, laws affecting women's work after having children, constraints on women starting and running a business, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman's pension, India could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women. The promotion of women's and girls' human rights is also reflected in India's institutional setup with a Ministry of Women and Child Development and a National Commission for Women (NCW). India has also ratified important international conventions for the protection of women's and girls' human rights, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)."}, {"bbox": [96, 1141, 1134, 1434], "category": "Text", "text": "Thanks to a strong women empowerment movement led by academia, lawyers, entrepreneurs and politicians, improvements have been made in the legal, constitutional and policy framework for gender equality, inclusive development and affirmative actions. In recent years, the Government of India has emphasised, in particular through its G20 Presidency, that India is transitioning from women's development to 'women-led development'. In this vision, women are architects of India's progress and modernisation. The shift reflects a change in mindset from seeing women as passive recipients of development programmes to active participants and leaders in the development process. Recognising the important role that women can play in driving sustainable and equitable development, the notion of women-led development emphasises the achievement of women with equal opportunities, decision-making power, and control over resources¹². In line with this, the Government has put in place and implements multi-sectoral schemes aimed at empowering India's women and girls. A women-led development is also a key dimension of this year India G20's presidency."}, {"bbox": [96, 1459, 1134, 1566], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite domestic laws in place and dedicated government programmes and policies to protect and advance women's and girl's rights and opportunities, challenges in terms of resources and capacity as well as enduring socio-cultural and patriarchal norms make regulations and government initiatives challenging to implement. As a result India continues to display poor performance in Gender Equality and Women Empowerment indicators."}, {"bbox": [85, 1597, 984, 1623], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ https://pldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bi-monthly-newsletter-vol.-9-issue-3-may-june-2016.pdf"}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 964, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² https://www.smsfoundation.org/shift-from-womens-development-to-women-led-development-in-india/"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 25"}]