‘Equality for women can up GDP 4%’

Speaking after releasing the UN body’s first global report on women,Puri said the women constitutes half the population in India and they may make huge contribution in taking India’s growth rate to greater heights.

“We arrived at the figure (of 4.2 per cent) following studies by our South Asia,” she said when asked about how the UN agency arrived at the figure.

India’s economy grew by 8.5 per cent in 2010-11 and it is projected to slide marginally in this fiscal due to global economic uncertainties.

In the report,the world body complimented India for its “vibrant democracy and progress made to ensure gender equality but deplored minuscule percentage of representation of the fair sex in judiciary.

“India significantly lags behind the rest of the world,with women making up just three per cent of judges.

Women judges are under-represented in most of the courts in the country,” the report — Progress of the World’s Women – said.

The report,quoting a survey this year by industry chamber ASSOCHAM,said 70 per cent of women in India are not aware of their rights as laid out in the Constitution.

It said close to 63 per cent of women in India,between the ages of 15 and 49,lack autonomy in their house which “defined as having no say in any of the vital everyday decisions like own health care,large household purchases,purchases for daily needs and visits to family or relatives.”

The report,however,complimented India’s Panchayati Raj institutions saying over a million women are actively participating in matters of local governance,policy formulation and decision making in these bodies.

“Almost 94 per cent of elected women representatives reported being able to freely raise issues in Gram Sabha as did 97 per cent of elected men representatives,” the report said,noting that several states have already reserved 50 per cent seats for women in local bodies.

In this context,Puri hoped that India’s Parliament will pass the Women Reservation Bill,providing for 33 per cent reservation for the fair sex in Parliament and state assemblies.

“I hope the Women’s Reservation Bill will cross all the hurdles soon. It is a landmark bill which will help women’s empowerment to a great extent,” said Puri.

Talking about global scenario,she said although equality between women and men is guaranteed in the constitutions of 139 countries and territories,inadequate laws and implementation gaps make these guarantees hollow promises,having little impact on the day-to-day lives of women.

The report said employing women on the front line of justice service delivery can help to increase women’s access to justice.

“Data show that there is a positive correlation between the presence of women police officers and reporting of sexual assault In post-conflict Liberia,the deployment of an all-women Indian police brigade has led to increased reporting (of cases by women),” the report said. It also sought putting gender equality at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals. “The MDGs are interdependent and each one depends on making progress on women’s rights.”

UN Women is the United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.