UNSC Open Debate

Women, Peace and Security: Economic inclusion through partnerships

(8 March 2022; 0900 hrs EST)

Statement delivered by Shri Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs

Thank you, Madam President.

We thank the United Arab Emirates for convening today’s Open Debate on this important issue.

I would like to express my gratitude to H.E. Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment for chairing this meeting.

We appreciate the insights provided by Executive Director of UN Women Ms. Sima Bahous and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Ms. Kristalina Georgieva and Ms. Moussokoro Coulibaly as a civil society briefer on this issue.

Madam President,

As we celebrate the International Women’s Day today, let me commence by recalling an exemplary contribution made by an Indian delegate, Dr. Hansa Mehta to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Way back inn 1948, she had insisted on rephrasing the line ‘All men are born free and equal’ to ‘All human beings are born free and equal’. Visionaries like her have brought us where we are today, congregated in the Security Council and deliberating on an extremely important theme ‘Economic inclusion through partnerships’. This becomes more pertinent as the world order continues to grapple with a fragile post-pandemic recovery.

We must, therefore, strengthen our resolve for harnessing the transformative potential of UNSC resolution 1325 – which for the first-time linked gender equality and the maintenance of international peace and security and recognized women’s participation as being key to resolving conflicts and securing peace.

Madam President,

India’s development narrative has witnessed a transformational change: from promoting women’s development to entirely women-led development, and from exclusively government-led to multi-stakeholder inclusive governance model.

As the world’s largest democracy, India offers a unique template for gender sensitive governance. More than 1.3 million elected women representatives, who constitute nearly 44% of the total elected representatives are leading the political decision-making at the grassroots level. India is one of the few countries to have had a Head of State, Head of Government, Defence Minister, Finance Minister and External Affairs Minister at its helm as women.

Madam President,

On the question of socio-economic empowerment, the need to devise an overall institutional framework, especially legal, to provide access for women to economic opportunities and partnerships is an essential pre-requisite. Economic opportunities cannot be viewed in isolation of other socio-economic factors, especially access to high quality education.

In this context, I would like to mention that India has taken numerous citizen-centric initiatives to take good governance practices right to the grass roots level. In this, digital initiatives have been a transformative enable to minimise the gender divide. We have leveraged digital technologies to provide greater access for women to finance, credit, technology and employment.

We opened online bank accounts for over 445 million people of which more than 55 percent of account holders were women. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this initiative helped in direct benefit transfer to nearly 200 million women. Through MUDRA scheme, the government provides collateral free loans to encourage entrepreneurship and self-employment. About 70% of its beneficiaries are women-owned and operated enterprises. Women have become consequently economically empowered and are providing employment to others as well.

And to open up these economic opportunities, equal access to education is fundamental. I am happy that a large number of women in India are taking up education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. In fact, for decades now our girls have been outnumbering our boys in our medical schools.

We now have women in important positions of responsibility not just in businesses but also in the areas of science and technology. Women scientists have played a vital role in research and development in various field including tech industry. In fact, women are playing an important part in furthering India’s space research and missions. About 27% of the key executive positions in spearheading the “Mars Orbiter Mission” were led by Indian women.

Madam President,

Commissioning more women police officers and women peacekeepers can be a game changer in our collective response to tackling conflicts.

The Council may recall the deployment of the first ever all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) for UN Peacekeeping in Liberia in 2007 by India. The unit’s decade-long service in Liberia resulted in a three-fold increase in female recruitment in the Liberian National Police and an overall reduction of crime. It had a salutary transformational impact on the fabric of Liberian society and brought women at the forefront of political and legislative decision making.

However, it is also pertinent to acknowledge that women have also suffered disproportionately, in the face of violent extremism, conflicts and terror attacks. This calls for collective endorsement of a zero tolerance approach by this Council against terrorism.

Ensuring that women continue to have a stake in peace processes in conflict zones is essential to securing long lasting solutions that we are aspiring for. We need to identify and eliminate barriers to women's optimum participation in the political process and decision making if we are to meaningfully address their socio-economic empowerment. Neither of these two aspects can be seen in isolation. In order to foster synergy between the two, democracy, pluralism and the rule of law are essential pre-requisites.

In this context, we continue to underline the importance of inclusive and representative governance in Afghanistan with meaningful participation of women as well as protection of women's rights, in accordance with the resolution 2593.

Madam President,

A strong normative framework for the Women Peace and Security agenda is an absolute imperative. It can only be strengthened by increasing our collective partnerships for women’s greater economic inclusion. Member States should undertake measures to ensure elimination of violence against women, strengthen their participation in peace and political processes, thereby contributing to women’s economic inclusion.

India is committed to engaging with all its partners to work towards mainstreaming of WPS considerations for building inclusive, peaceful and resilient societies. India’s experience of enhancing women’s leadership across sectors will continue to guide our actions.

I thank you Madam President.

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