G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment: Smriti Irani reminds participants of core focus areas of India’s Presidency

The Conference had a total participation of over 138 International delegates from 15 G20 Countries namely Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, European Union, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Kingdom, and USA and five Guest Countries namely Bangladesh, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore and UAE. There will be over 60 speakers at the Conference.

New Delhi: Inaugurating the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Wednesday, the minister of women and child development Smriti Irani reminded participants of core focus areas of India’s G20 Presidency, adding that India had achieved several tangible takeaways. The conference, taking place from 2nd to 4th August includes participation by Women and Gender Equality Ministers from across the G20 and Guest countries.

The Conference had a total participation of over 138 International delegates from 15 G20 Countries namely Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, European Union, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Kingdom, and USA and five Guest Countries namely Bangladesh, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore and UAE. There will be over 60 speakers at the Conference.

The Inaugural session of Conference was virtually addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Chief Coordinator, India’s G20 Presidency, Harsh Vardhan Shringla; Minister for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs, India, Smriti Zubin Irani; Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, Indonesia, I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati; Vice Minister of Women, Government of Brazil, Maria Helena Guarezi; and Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, India, Indevar Pandey.

It is pertinent to note that through the course of India’s G20 Presidency, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has been the nodal Ministry for both G20 EMPOWER (Empowerment and Progression of Women’s Economic Representation), an initiative under the Sherpa track comprising the government as well as the private sector, and W20, an Engagement Group.

At the Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment, Prime Minister Modi summarized India’s vision of women-led development with his words- “When women prosper, the world prospers. Their economic empowerment fuels growth, their access to education drives global progress, their leadership fosters inclusivity, and their voices inspire positive change.”

It is pertinent to note that during India's G20 Presidency, women-led development has emerged as a crucial focus area on a life-course approach basis, marking a shift from a focus on women’s empowerment alone. Through consensus-building on the global stage, India modelled a vision for progress in uplifting women worldwide with six in-person conferences and 86 virtual international meetings that witnessed the participation of over 300 delegates from 18 G20 countries and 7 Guest countries.

India has also added a focus on the empowerment and recognition of women at the local or community level. At the outset of the Ministerial Conference, Minister for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs, India, Smriti Zubin Irani, reminded the participants of the core focus areas of India’s G20 Presidency.

These include Education: A Game-changing Pathway to Women’s Empowerment, Women’s Entrepreneurship: A Win-Win for Equity and Economy, and Creating a Partnership for Promoting Women’s Leadership at all Levels including Grassroots. An essential enabler for all three has been Digital Inclusion.

The Minister stated that India had achieved several tangible takeaways and had several differentiators – leadership of women at local or grassroots levels, a Jan Bhagidari or Citizen’s engagement, and emphasis on women and climate change resilience. India calibrated efforts toward education with a focus on STEM and one of the critical contributions of its presidency included ‘TechEquity’, a Digital Inclusion Platform through which girls and women can skill, upskill and reskill themselves in digital literacy, financial literacy and other technical subjects.

With contributions from across the G20 Member States, courses in over 120 Indian and international languages will be available on the platform. This platform will address the gender digital divide with an expected outreach of 1 million girls and women.

During the Ministerial Conference, the Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, Indonesia, Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati highlighted the importance of education and ensuring girls and women are equitably represented in technology-related education. She stated that education is the key for a future where women leaders are the norm and not the exception. Under India’s Presidency, 149 model initiatives from 19 G20 countries have been added to the Best Practices Playbook for G20 EMPOWER, substantially scaling up the insights and best practices from across industries and businesses available to the public and private sectors.

The Playbook has been digitised to make it easily accessible. Previously, the Best Practices Playbook had 3 focus areas; India added a new chapter in the EMPOWER playbook to support women at the grassroots. India’s Presidency has added substantially to G20 EMPOWER advocates (comprising CEOs, association heads and other leaders) promoting women’s advancement.

These have increased from 380 to 544, with 100 of the new additions coming from India. The G20 EMPOWER advocacy pledge has also been updated to strengthen commitments to gender equality. 73 inspirational stories from 9 G20 countries highlighted women surmounting barriers have been placed on the G20 EMPOWER website.

In bilateral meetings held as part of the Ministerial Conference, G20 countries expressed appreciation for the Poshan Tracker, a unique ICT platform developed as a governance tool for monitoring nutrition services and early childhood care service delivery for close to 100 million registered beneficiaries including pregnant women, lactating mothers, children under 6 years of age and adolescent girls across 1.4 million Anganwadi Centres.

In line with India’s G20 motto of One Earth One Family One Future, India expressed readiness to assist G20 countries to develop localized applications of the Poshan Tracker in the area of nutrition and early childhood care to develop a healthy tomorrow.

With women-led development as the guiding light, India’s G20 presidency outlined solutions tailored for women across education, entrepreneurship, technology, finance, and beyond. Partnerships were strengthened, mindsets shifted, and policies transformed through camaraderie, consensus and teamwork.