The Indian Express               20.01.2014

In a first, PMC wants ‘women-friendly’ tag for city

Special safety policy, women-friendly building certification, regular health check-up camps at offices, industries and business parks and exclusive buses are some of the major initiatives that women in the city can hope to enjoy in the near future. The PMC has been planning these measures as a part of its framework for making the city woman-friendly. A road map to this effect is being charted out by the civic body with the help of All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), Mumbai. While the initiative is considered as first of its kind in the country, the civic body has termed it as the next concrete step towards the implementation of gender-based budgeting. “We have started implementing the gender-based budgeting, but the concept remains notional so far. We want to turn this concept into a reality by coming out with a framework for making the city woman-friendly. 

The detailed guidelines prepared by AIILSG are basically a set of suggestions aimed at carrying out interventions of various departments of the civic body as well as government bodies concerned,” Hanumant Nazirkar, in-charge of Urban Community Development (UCD) department of PMC, said. AIILSG director Sneha Palnitkar said PMC annual budgets for the past few years were studied to ensure how the concept of gender-based budgeting could be fine tuned. “We have come out with suggestions, which can be implemented through interventions among different PMC departments, government departments and other key bodies to make life more convenient for local women.

Specific budgetary provisions for each PMC department can be worked out accordingly to give more realistic scope for implementation of gender-based budget,” she said. While the AIILSG has come out with English draft of the said framework, its modified Marathi version will be submitted before the civic body shortly. “We have been implementing certain measures recommended by AIILSG through different schemes of UCD and other departments. More concerted efforts would be taken in the future in keeping with these proposed measures with requisite budgetary allocations as per the principle of gender-budgeting,” said Nazirkar. Rajya Sabha member and leader of Nationalist Congress Party,Vandana Chavan — who has pioneered the concept of a woman-friendly city — said guidelines being prepared by AIILSG would offer a road map for the PMC to execute gender-budgeting. “The concept, so far, has been confined to a very few activities towards women development and empowerment.

The proposed framework would identify the needs and issues of women from different strata of society, and would address them with the help of different civic and government departments by having definite money allocation,” she said. Meanwhile, the framework for a women-friendly city has also addressed issues of vulnerable groups like senior citizens, unorganised women labour and commercial sex workers.

On the wish list

Women-friendly building certification

Health

Education

Safety