Political will needed to implement schemes

BHUBANESWAR: The two-day regional conference on women empowerment, which concluded here on Wednesday, called for a strong ‘political will’ to implement programmes and schemes. The conference on ‘Achieving convergence for empowerment of women’, was organised by the Women and Child Development Department, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Mission for  Empowerment of Women, Delhi.Addressing the conference, Minister of State (Independent) for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath recommended gender budgeting and convergence between departments for better implementation of the schemes meant for women empowerment. The conference also recommended remedies to tackle these issues.The participants suggested that widows, single and deserted women and women with missing husbands should also be included under the category of ‘women in difficult circumstances’.  Among others, WCD Minister Anjali Behera, Secretary Aarti Ahuja and Director, Social Welfare Sujata Karthikeyan spoke.