International Women’s Day: Maharashtra Government Presents Its Women’s Policy

The strategy, the fourth after those launched in 1994, 2001, and 2014, seeks for women’s comprehensive and all-inclusive development through eight areas of focus.

These include health, nutrition, and wellbeing, education and skill development, the abolition of sexual and gender-based violence, gender-responsive livelihood enhancement, gender-inclusive infrastructure, gender-responsive governance and political participation, gender-sensitive natural resource management, climate change adaptation and disaster management, and an exclusive sports policy. State Women and Child Welfare Minister Aditi Tatkare announced the programme, stating that free health check-up camps will be held in underserved, distant, and hard-to-reach locations throughout urban, rural, and tribal communities.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endocrine, cancer, urinary tract infections (UTIs), tuberculosis (TB), and menopausal disorders will all receive improved diagnostic services at all government health facilities up to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) level, she stated. The policy will attempt to build demand-based day care centres in enterprises with a significant female population, as well as to provide day care facilities in special industrial regions and commerce zones.

Tatkare said that adolescent females will be fully enrolled and retained in secondary and senior secondary schools in remote and underserved communities spanning rural, urban, and tribal areas. The state will be divided into industrial zones to tailor skill development programmes to the specific needs and strengths of each region. Such categorization will incorporate criteria such as literacy levels and women’s travel patterns.