Meghalaya Cabinet approves 50 percent reservation for women in Village Employment Councils

Guwahati: In a historic move, the Meghalaya cabinet has approved the "Policy on Reservation of seats for Women in Village Employment Councils (VECs)".

"#Meghalaya Cabinet passed a historic decision by approving the Policy on Reservation of seats for Women in Village Employment Councils (VECs)", Meghalaya's Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma wrote in Twitter.

Meghalaya Government has brought the policy of reserving at least 50 percent of seats for women in the grassroots village-level community institutions (VECs).

The policy entails the following:

1. The position of the Secretary of VEC will be reserved for women members in all VECs on a rotational basis. Adult women who are active community workers with leadership qualities shall be eligible.
2. The position of Chairperson will be reserved for women in VECs where the posts of Chairperson are not held by the traditional heads; this will also be on a rotation basis.

According to the government, the policy has been developed to address different grassroots problems related to gender equality and developmental issues and its main aim is to involve the active participation of women as well.

"Women leadership implies the creation of an agency for women that will enable them to make decisions and participate in the developmental process as well as decisions that impact their lives," the Chief Minister said in a statement.

The policy aims to create an enabling environment for women to exercise leadership and give them equal opportunities in grassroots governance.

Village Employment Councils (VEC) emerged as effective development delivery institutions; VEC consists of all male and female head of the households (like Gram Sabha) and is entrusted with the planning and execution of all works under MGNREGA.

Notably, VECs are apolitical organizations formed for the implementation of MGNREGA works.

"Most of the time, the focus is laid on improving the well-being of women but not on the creation of an agency for women to exercise her freedom and leadership, and through this policy, we want to ensure empowerment of women", the Chief Minister added.

It is to be mentioned that with the active participation of the traditional institutions, the VECs have been performing well across the State. A need is felt to upscale the effectiveness of the VECs and the policy aims to empower the women.

Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma also pointed out that data available with the government states that in a few VECs where female members hold the position of Chairperson (112 nos.) and Secretaries (260 nos.), the execution and maintenance of works and record-keeping are found to be exemplary.

The State Government's main objective is to develop and strengthen the rural areas while bringing in more women's participation in rural development activities so that effective leadership can be taken forward.

This new policy aims at bringing down the maternal mortality rate by providing impetus to women's active participation in public health.

As per reports, the State life expectancy is only 62.3 years as compared to the national average of 68.5 years.

With this policy brought in, the Government aims to improve all its performance in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (especially the SDG goal 5 on Gender Equality) by 2030.

As per recent updates, the SDG-5 ranking of Meghalaya is 25 among all states of India. 

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