Dharamshala: “The 15th Kashag’s Women Empowerment Policy is committed to realising His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s vision for Tibetan women as contributors to global and peaceful leadership in the 21st century,” said President Dr Lobsang Sangay this Tuesday.
He was addressing a general meeting organised by the Women’s Empowerment Desk of the Department of Finance, Central Tibetan Administration.
Kalons of the Department of Religion and Culture, Finance, Education, Security, Information & International Relations and Health presided over the WED’s general meeting.
The meeting was organised to exchange ideas and solicit suggestions and recommendations on the implementation of the women’s empowerment policy formulated by the Central Tibetan Administration.
“The implementation of gender equality is embedded within all policies and rules and regulations of CTA” President said. “Moreover the Administration maintains a special focus on women empowerment and leadership through the Women Empowerment Desk, Department of Finance.”
In view to further strengthen Kashag’s steadfast commitment in recognising and empowering Tibetan women and enabling them to fully participate and contribute towards the advancement of Tibetan society, a series of initiatives were launched within the Tibetan community.
As part of its commitment to women empowerment, CTA organised the ‘First Women’s Empowerment Conference’ in February 2017 at Dharamshala. The conference brought together around 300 participants, both women and men, from across the spectrum to discuss on Tibetan governance and leadership, mainstreaming gender perspective into the development process, social empowerment, and sexual and gender-based violence.
To better enable Tibetan women to fully contribute to the Tibetan society and the world, the 15th Kashag led by President Dr Sangay revised the existing Tibetan Women Empowerment Policy which was first introduced in 2008 by the 13th Kashag.
Kalon Dr Pema Yangchen, Department of Education who also spoke at the meeting, said women are successively advancing in all areas of society and careers.
She said women empowerment must first come from full-embrace and celebration of women’s qualities of compassion, empathy, loving-kindness. She asked young women to own their successes and find pride and confidence as a woman with a key role in society.
The revised women empowerment policy outlines seven key points in its stated objective of making Tibetan women equal partners in all aspects of Tibetan society. The points include Women and human rights, Education, Health, Economy, Governance and Leadership, Social, and Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV).