Panning the UN review report on gender equality as disappointing, India’s leading woman cooperator Dr Nandini Azad said the report disregarded the achievements of India, its civil society and multiple initiatives taken by the government.
The recent UN Women review from New York last week of 25 years of Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women has yielded data that suggests “there are miles to go before gender equality becomes a reality” said Dr.Nandini Azad, who is the President of Working Women’s Forum (India) – Indian Cooperative Network for Women.
Dr Azad said India boasted gargantuan movements like WWF and ICNW, that claimed over 6 lakh women members. She called upon the world body to keep its eye on the models that worked so well in empowering women in India.
Referring to this report review Dr. Nandini Azad said it was disappointing that the report did not highlight the success of India, its significant civil society and various government efforts.
“We have seen much leaps and bounds as the Gender and Equality model soon to be 43 years (of WWF/ICNW) needs to be seen by the UN. UN Women should come and see low cost models, cost effective cooperatives of poor women operate and replicate it.
She was speaking while receiving the Life Time Achievement Award recently in Chennai.
In her remarks on the occasion, Dr Nandani Azad also talked about her cooperative organizations namely WWF and ICNW. She noted that these are not only financially sustainable but inclusive cooperatives with viability and investment focused on girls and women.
The ICNW in particular is committed to working for women’s economic empowerment in order to combat gender-based violence in society, she remarked.
A ten-minute documentary film on Dr. Nandini Azad was shown on the occasion.
The film, among other things, described her as a woman possessing courage to work in a war-ravaged Cambodia. It also talks about India’s Naxalite belts bristling with violence.
The documentary also highlights the point that she is the only woman in 50 years to be elected to the board of Europe’s largest and oldest cooperative Raiffeisen in Germany.
It bears recall that Nandini has also the distinction of figuring in an international publication ”My Encounters in India ” by the distinguished German Indologist Prof Dietmar Rothermund, the film underlines.