Permanent Mission of India
New York
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 High level meeting on 30th Anniversary of World Conference on Women during the
80^th UN General Assembly (UNGA)

"Recommitting to, resourcing and accelerating the implementation of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls"

Statement by Shri Anil Malik, Secretary (MWCD)
22 September 2025

Thank you Chair,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

Namaste from India!

1. I thank the Chair for organizing today’s meeting to express our collective commitment to achieving gender equality.
2. Chair, India reaffirms accelerating progress on the 12 critical areas of concern of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and has adopted a “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approach to address issues on a life-cycle continuum, and in this regard, we welcome the Beijing +30 Action Agenda.
3. India is moving ahead with women-led development, a paradigm shift in governance where women as architects are shaping India’s development trajectory to realise the vision of a developed nation by 2047.
4. With regard to Beijing+30 Action Agenda, India commits to “Increasing workforce participation of women to at least 70% by 2047”, that is aligned to priority action area -“Freedom from Poverty.”
5. I am happy to share that with an average increase of approx. 2.5% per annum, India will certainly achieve the target. Enabling laws for equal remuneration, occupational safety, grievance redressal and maternity benefits, effective implementation to prevent sexual harassment of women at workplace, supporting young women and girls through skilling, including in STEM fields and AI and emerging technologies, are key to its realisation.
6. Further, India is committed to minimum 33% elected women representatives at all levels from Panchayat (local self government) to Parliament, by 2035, truly “leaving no one behind,” enabling women’s leadership and equitable representation at all levels of public life.
7. India has already passed a constitutional amendment rotationally reserving one-third of all seats for women in the Lower House of Parliament, and all State Legislative Assemblies.
8. Much beyond the constitutional mandate of 33% in local governments, today there is presence of over 1.4 million elected women representatives, or 46% of the total, a scale of representation unparalleled globally.
9. I will conclude my remarks by mentioning that India has zero tolerance for all forms of violence against women and girls, including online-violence to ensure that all women and girls live with dignity, free from violence and discrimination. India assures of its full cooperation to the UN in all its efforts to make a gender-just world.

Thank you!

Jai Hind!