Gender equality and the empowerment of women remain the key focus area of soc...

Gender equality and the empowerment of women remain the key focus area of social development and distributive justice globally. Empowering women politically, economically, educationally and legally has been a major objective of the Government of India. We are proud of the fact that India gave women equal voting rights more than 60 years ago, at the time of our independence. In 1992, we amended our Constitution and reserved 33 per cent of the seats for women in local- and district-level governance institutions and bodies. That was subsequently raised to 50 per cent in 2009. Currently, we have more than 1.5 million elected women representatives in local bodies. That is the biggest mobilization of women worldwide in politics at the local Government and the rural and district levels.