| Panel Discussion on the Union Budget
The government released the Union Budget 2015-16 on 28 February 2015. As part of an annual series, UN Women organized a panel discussion on 2 March 2015 in New Delhi, bringing together eminent economists, political representatives and policy makers to analyze the budget from a gender lens. This year’s budget assumes special significance given that it is the first full-year budget presented by the new government. |
| Panel Discussion with Goodwill Ambassador Sania Mirza on CNN-IBN UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, Sania Mirza and UN Women Representative, Dr. Rebecca Tavares, participated in a panel discussion on International Women’s Day on CNN-IBN’s special show, ‘She Rocks’. The show saw experts discuss women’s empowerment while also raising important issues related to gender equality. |
| Sounds of Freedom Concert
Sounds of Freedom concert, organized by UN Women on 3 March, had performances by Goodwill Ambassador Farhan Akhtar and other popular artists. They highlighted the message of gender equality and women’s empowerment and called upon the audience to sign the HeForShe pledge on the HeForShe website. |
| ‘Gender Day’ meet to discuss ‘Gender Equality at the Heart of Development’
UN Women in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a federal enterprise supporting the German Government on international cooperation for sustainable development, organized a ‘Gender Meet’ on 4 March in New Delhi. The theme for this half-day meeting was ‘’Gender equality at the heart of development.’’ The seminar served as a platform to discuss critical areas of women’s empowerment and also sought to understand how gender is being made central to national development. |
| Panel Discussion on drug use among women in India
UN Women India Multi Country Office, in partnership with UNODC Regional Office for South Asia, organized a panel discussion on ‘Women who use drugs in India – The silent epidemic’ on 4 March 2015 in New Delhi. A study on ‘Women who use drugs in Northeast India’ by UNODC was also launched at the meeting. |
| Live chat hosted by ‘The Hindu’ on International Women’s Day To mark International Women’s Day, Subhalakshmi Nandi, head of the Women’s Economic Empowerment unit at UN Women India Multi Country Office (MCO), and Kalpana Sharma, columnist and former deputy editor at The Hindu, took questions on the issue of gender equality. |
| HeForShe signature drive at Raahgiri
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Prasiddha Foundation organized a ‘Women Safety in Delhi’ campaign at Raahgiri, a movement to promote sustainable transport and urban mobility. The event saw UN Women engaging young men and boys in its HeForShe campaign. The aim was to strengthen the global movement for gender equality that has galvanised over 200,000 supporters worldwide. |
| Ring the Bell for Gender Equality
The Bombay Stock Exchange, India in cooperation with UN Women, UN Global Compact and Sustainable Stock Exchange (SSE) Initiative organized ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ on 9 March 2015 in Mumbai. This served as a call to action for businesses in India to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality. |
| India and the MDGs: Gender and Development- An Assessment
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approach their December 2015 deadline, UN Women, along with the UN-ESCAP Sub-regional office for South and South West Asia and the UN Information Centre organized a panel discussion on 20 March, aimed at assessing the MDGs in India through a gender lens. |
| Special Female Military Officers Course
An initiative to develop a special technical course dedicated to female military officers was hosted by UN Women India from 19 March to 1 April in New Delhi. The pilot project is in partnership with the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK). The Special Female Military Officers Course will eventually be provided as a standard to use for national peacekeeping training centres in all troop contributing countries. |
| | Commission on the Status of Women
Against the backdrop of the 59thsession of The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), UN Women in partnership with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) organized a pre-departure consultation on 11 February 2015 to discuss possible advocacy strategies at the CSW session. This was followed by a meeting with Ministry of Women and Child Development, which enabled CSO representatives to talk about the positive measures they wished to see on women’s rights. At the CSW, a facilitator from UN Women Multi Country Office will help CSO representatives get real time information about the meeting as well about side events organized by various NGO networks. A debriefing session after the CSW will enable UN Women and CSOs to understand best practices that can step up the development of post-2015 agenda on gender equality. |