Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-Operative Management (VAMNICOM), Pune, is conducting a 3 day residential National Level training programme on “Gender Budgeting & Climate Change” from 10th to 12th December. The programme is a part of major capacity building initiative for Government officials, NGOs, Universities, Officers of Training institutes and other key stake holders.
The programme is sponsored under the Gender Budgeting Scheme of Ministry of Women & Child Development, Govt of India. More than 100 delegates from across 16 States from all over the country are participating in this 3 day National Programme. The Inaugural Session was hosted at the Institute’s campus on 10th Dec.
The event started with lighting of the knowledge lamp by dignitaries Dr K.K Tripaty, IES, Director, VAMNICOM, Dr Vibhuti Patel, Professor, Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, School of Development Studies, TISS Mumbai, Mrs Ankita Bhat, Consultant, UNWomen, Dr Manisha Paliwal , Programme Director & Professor VAMNICOM and Dr Medha Dubhashi, Former Professor & GB Expert, VAMNICOM. Dr K.K Tripathy delivered the formal welcome address to all the participants and also shared the importance of such sensitization programmes. He further elaborated that there is a greater need to understand the type of schematic interventions in Gender Budgeting, policy commitments and metrics to evaluate the parameters laid down in the plans and policies.
Dr Manisha Paliwalal briefed the audience about the various capacity building initiatives of the Institute and also shared the importance of greater knowledge management in the area of Gender Budgeting which can be a powerful tool to address gender related issues of the country.
Mrs Ankita Bhat, Guest of Honour, delivered the Inaugural speech and shared that 10th December is also celebrated worldwide as International Human Rights Day and how Gender Equality is at the core of Human Rights. She also shared that there is nothing called as Gender Neutral and all activities of Government Policy Planning and expenditure need to have a gender component and inbuilt mechanisms to measure the impact of schemes and policy programmes. She also congratulated VAMNICOM for its effort on successfully executing similar programmes ever the past many years.
Dr Vibhuti Patel, Key Resource Person, for the programme delivered the Key Note Address and gave a rich background on Gender Budgeting. She shared various examples where interventions have been successful in bringing back girl school drop outs, enabling women workers in agriculture and Gram Panchayats by developing facilities like child care and health care and other examples where interventions can work at grass root level. She also shared that when we talk of adaptation strategies on Climate Change, we need to see it through gender prisms as women are more affected by climate change as compared to men.
Dr Medha Dubhashi, GB expert also shared that even though many schemes on gender and related areas are formulated at Centre, State and District Level, the benefits have not percolated down to the grassroots levels till today. So there is a huge scope of capacity building in this area and planning as well as implementing agencies need to come together to address such impending issues like Climate Change and its impact on women so as to bring about the desired change.
