The Tamil Nadu government on February 21, released its policy framework for women’s welfare in the state. The government says that it will broadly focus on the social, economic, political, emotional and mental well-being of women.
The framework is to be implemented over a ten year period and is set to work on reducing school-dropout rates among girls, health and nutrition, reforms to workplaces and support for women-led start-ups and MSMEs and increased political participation.
Saying that there is 0.99% gender disparity in enrollment to higher education among female students compared to male students, the government says that it will encourage girls to pursue STEM courses, increase access to career counselling, create awareness among families to reduce bias against women’s education, provide digital literacy, provide skill development training/upskilling and reskilling courses.
In terms of health apart from talking about ensuring sanitation and hygiene, the policy framework promises to ensure women’s reproductive rights including the right to choice of contraception and right to bodily autonomy regarding abortion. The state government has also said that it would accord access to nutrition the utmost priority.
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