The Hindu       07.12.2010

Focus on empowering women for better governance

KANNUR: Speakers at a seminar on decentralised governance and women empowerment, here on Monday, highlighted the importance of empowering women elected to local bodies in the State to help them utilise administrative powers given to them.

The two-day seminar being organised by the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs (IPA) and the Sree Narayana College Department of Political Science and History on the college campus here was inaugurated by Kannur University Vice-Chancellor P.K. Michael Tharakan.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Tharakan noted the key role played by the late Chief Minister and communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in launching decentralised governance in the State. He hoped that decentralised democracy would be strengthened in future. In his keynote address, State Finance Commission Chairman M.A. Oommen said that while many States were lagging behind in fiscal decentralisation, Kerala had taken some crucial steps in this regard. IPA Director-General G. Gopakumar said thefunction of the institute was to disseminate awareness of parliamentary democracy among the common people.