Rajasthan State Policy for Women  :

Introduction :

 The Government of Rajasthan recognizes the importance of equality and empowerment of women in overall development of the society. Engaging women as successful and rightful participant in development is not only important for the empowerment of girls and women but also the overall socio- economic development of the society. Rajasthan has for long been acknowledged to be one of the states’ where women’s low status is a cause of concern and successive State Governments have sought women’s advancement in different spheres through legislation, development policies, plans and programmes.

Vision :

 Envision a society , where all women, girls, men and boys are treated with equal dignity and respect, have equal oppurtunities in the area of social, health and economic development, has access to political participation and decision making and free from all forms of gender based violence.

Objectives : The objectives of the State policy for women are –

1.To create a conducive and enabling environment for holistic development of women and girls through inclusive approach and positive economic and social policies.  

2. To ensure equal access quality health care, education and employment and avail entrepreneur opportunities .

3. To enable women to participate equally in all platforms of Governance and strengthen their decision making power.

 4.To address and prevent harmful practices that hinder the survival , progress and prosperity of girls and women.

 5.To strengthen the legal systems to reduce all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

 6. Engage with boys and Men on issues of Gender equality and mobilise their opinion and action to facilitate the creation of a gender equitable society .

 7. To mobilise Communities and Civil Society to create a supportive environment  towards protection and development of girls and women of the State.

  8.To ensure inter departmental coordination for effective implementation of the policy.

  9.To ensure that gender disaggregated indicators are captured and decisions are made to ensure that the programmes delivered achieve the objective of gender equality.

Guiding principles - The main guiding principles of the policy are-  Equality and Equity,  Addressing Patriarchal norms,  Life cycle approach,  Human rights approach,  Inclusion,  Participation, Regional and cultural diversity,  Reaching out to the most vulnerable·

Priority areas :

I ) Birth, Survival, Health and Nutrition :  Ensure survival of girls, create an enabling environment to promote health and wellbeing of the girls and women and address barriers that discriminate their access and utilization of health and nutritional services.

II)  Education and Training: Ensure equal opportunity for quality inclusive education, training, Vocational training, to girls and women of Rajasthan.

III)  Livelihood/ Economic Empowerment : Facilitate a enabling environment for women and girls for skill development, employment and entrepreneurship to fully realize their potential.

IV ) Political Empowerment :  Facilitate the promotion of gender sensitive institution and operational frameworks to place gender interest at the core of governance and create an enabling for women participation and leadership in decision making of the State.

V)  Safety, Security and Protection : Promote gender sensitive strategies and actions by effectively implementing laws and provisions addressing discrimination and violence against girls and women.

Vi ) Housing, Shelter and Asset ownership : Facilitate an enabling environment for women and girls to acess and control over assests, housing and shelter through legislation and administration measures.

Vii ) Girls and Women with Special needs : Promote inclusion of girls and women with special needs by mainstreaming them with the existing schemes, programmes and institutions further develop new schemes.

Operationalisation of Strategic Action points :

Action Plan Development :  In order to facilitate the operationalisation of the policy, comprehensive action plan will be developed that touches upon across various sectors in the State. The Action plan will contain strategies and activities which will be implemented at short, medium and long term. Short term action plan will focus on the activities and deliverables which will be implemented within first two year of launch of policy. It will primarily focus on soft activities and strengthening the existing mechanisms to deliver gender equitable programmes. While the medium-term action plan will focus on the activities & deliverables which will require 3-5 years of implementation and involves policy decisions, change in existing systems and allocation of budget.The long term action plan will focus on those activities which either require significant inputs/ changes or those social practices which requires sustained long term efforts. The indicators will be also developed to monitor the progress of action plan & regularly its progress will be monitored.

2. Intersectoral Convergence : In order to ensure effective implementation of the policy, developing efficient coordination mechanism for convergence is very important. Hence, a mechanism will be developed to facilitate intersectoral convergence at both State and field level. All the concerned department & stakeholders will be involved to ensure effective coordination and optimum utilization of existing resources & meeting the women’s need holistically.

3. Gender Responsive Budgeting :Gender responsive budgeting is a very important tool to promote gender mainstreaming and monitoring the allocation of financial resources for women’s development & addressing their need. In the state, gender responsive budgeting has been implemented and based on the learning, the process of the gender responsive budgeting in the state will be strengthened. The Department of Women and Child Development in co-ordination with Department of Planning would steer the process of Gender Responsive Budgeting Departments will be made accountable and responsible for reporting on critical deliverables that promote Gender Responsive Budgeting.

4. Gender Mainstreaming : Gender mainstreaming is an important strategy to promote gender equality. It ensures that gender perspective is included in all stages of policy & programmes development and implementation with an aim to combat gender based discrimination. A plan will be developed to integrate gender perspective in all stages of relevant policy & programmes development and implementation by different stakeholders. The progress of gender mainstreaming in different departments will be regularly monitored. District Action Planning undertaken in all the districts every year would have Gender elements mainstreamed into the Action Plan.

5. Gender Disaggregated Data : Availability of gender disaggregated data is very important to understand existing challenges and identify vulnerable groups. It will also help in monitoring the progress of policy and different initiatives. The need of gender disaggregated data in different areas will be listed and existing data sources will be mapped. Data gaps will be identified and a strategy will be developed to generate the Gender disaggregated data. Department of Women and Child Development will co-ordinate with Directorate of Economics and Statistics to generate reports of all the sectors with gender disaggregated data.

6. Knowledge Management through Evidence Generation and Desk Review : In order to facilitate evidence based policy making and identify existing gaps, evidence generation will be integral part of the policy implementation. Existing evidences & data will be reviewed and analysed & gaps in the same will be identified. An action plan will be developed to address the existing gaps. Both quantitative and qualitative studies will be undertaken to generate evidences. Besides that, data generated through existing surveys and studies will be regularly analysed & policy briefs will be also developed.

7. Advocacy : In order to create enabling environment for women and to address structural issues, advocacy will be undertaken with concerned stakeholders. Existing barriers in empowerment & protection of women’s rights will be identified and advocacy will be undertaken to address the same. A comprehensive advocacy strategy will be developed to ensure that all the concerned stakeholders are reached. Coalition and network with like-minded organizations will be also developed to undertake advocacy on issues pertaining to women and to create enabling environment.

8. Community Involvement : The patriarchal norms and traditional norms that fuels gender inequalities needs to be addressed effectively in order to develop a gender equitable society. In this context , State Government will take steps to involve community members in the various community level structures of the various programmes of the Government. Civil Societies participation will be encouraged to share Gender related concerns and also to articulate the voices of the community in the various platforms of the Government programmes and institutional mechanisms.

Rajasthan has in the past decades implemented various programmes and schemes to promote women empowerment and accelerate the state’s progress towards gender equity. The pioneering work under the Women Development programme initiated in the eighties , Policy level work in the area of Women’s policy and Girl Child Policy , creation of a separate Directorate of Women Empowerment under the Women and Child Development Department , drafting legislations for addressing Witch hunting and developing strategic action plan to make Rajasthan Child Marriage Free. The State Policy for Women is an instrument to hasten the process of women empowerment through a renewed policy framework and stronger implementation steps to achieve gender equality.