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Women, Children and Youth Committee presents Report on Sustainable Development Goal 5 – Gender Equality

The Chairperson of the Women Children and Youth Committee, Dorjee Wangmo, Member from Sangbaykha Constituency presented the report on the SDG 5 – Gender Equality to the House today. 

The presentation included Committee’s observation, key findings and six recommendations. The Chairperson reported that the Committee conducted two rounds of consultation meetings with the National Commission for Women and Children. The National Key Result Area (NKRA) 10 of the 12^th Five Year Plan which aims to promote gender equality by creating adequate support and enabling facilities for women and girls removing the barriers that limit their potential, was also included in the report due to its direct relevance with the Sustainable Development Goal 5.

The six recommendations of the Committee were on the need to establish effective legal and policy framework, to promote multi-sectoral coordination mechanism, to carry out more awareness and sensitization in programs, capacity building initiatives and main streaming gender and child issues in legislation, policies, plans and program, to strengthen gender friendly wellbeing and child wellbeing, to promote job opportunities to reduce female unemployment and to prioritize resources for gender equality and child protection and wellbeing.

The House while deliberating on the recommendations of the Committee also pointed out that there was a need to study the situation of women in detention centers and the safety of women working late. It was also brought to the notice of the House that the 12th  FYP  target of women in parliament of 15.2% has already been met and that the target should be increased to aleast 17% or more by 2030. Further  as per  Global Gender Gap Report 2018,  Bhutan is ranked at 122 out of 149 which is low. 

The House directed the Committee to further discuss on and consider the additional recommendation and frame appropriate recommendation  and submit it to the House on 28^th January, 2020.