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Prez proposes long neglected laws for gender equity, women empowerment
ECONOMYNEXT –President Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed a new bill on gender equality and women’s empowerment to be submitted to Parliament soon.
President Wickremesinghe urged the women’s parliamentarians’ forum to prepare the bill and emphasized that women’s representation should be increased not only in the Parliament but also in other sectors and the public sector as well as the private sector should focus their attention in this regard.
“We are drafting two acts related to Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. It is also proposed to establish an independent commission under the name of the National Women’s Commission to give leadership and make recommendations to the Parliament to intervene in matters relating to gender equality and women empowerment,” Wickremesinghe told the parliament during the Committee Stage debate for the Ministry of Women and Children.
Despite Sri Lanka being the first country to produce the first woman prime minister and president, most women are reluctant to join politics in the island nation in a patriarchal society despite more than half of the population being women.
Women are not only considered equal under the existing practices, but their rights are also usually violated by men due to gender insensitiveness, analysts say. There are only handfuls of women at the higher level of top corporates.
Sri Lanka has only 12 female lawmakers in the 225-member legislature. Most women politicians say they are not given opportunities by their party’s counterpart men due to the patriarchal nature of the society.
Wickremesinghe’s last 2015-2019 government enacted a law to mandatorily allocate 25 percent of the local government seats to women from 2018 local government polls. However, no women were given opportunities for decision making.
“When we look at the estate sector, and garment factories, most of the employees are females but there is not a single woman director in them. Not only the Private sector but the government sector too has made the same mistake, as the scenario in the Corporations are the same,” President Wickremesinghe said in his capacity as the Minister of Women Affairs and Children.
“We can address it by way of law. However, where the education sector, health and administrative sector are concerned, female representation is higher. But in the private sector, we don’t find this development and it should be improved. But when we look at the numbers receiving education, more than 50 per cent are female which is not reflected at the higher level of employment.”
News
Formulation of a Draft Economic Development Bill to expedite the process of Digital Transformation and Digital Economic Development
It is essential to establish an institutional framework with legal powers to ensure the effective implementation of national digital policy and guidelines.
Quality human capital should be attracted to this institutional framework for the compilation of policies, implementation of policies, regulation, and empowerment of operations. The continuous participation of the private sector should also be considered in establishing a strong institutional framework.
It has been further identified that attention should also be
drawn to new fields of digital innovation, including support for artificial intelligence and related activities.
Taking into consideration the aforementioned matters, a concept paper has been formulated to prepare a Draft Economic Development Bill for the establishment of a new institutional framework.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Digital Economy to instruct legal draftsman to formulate a Draft Economic Development Bill based on the aforementioned concept paper.
The Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey is the main data source for obtaining necessary information for reviewing progress toward achieving the national health development goals, as well as the expected sustainable development goals by 2030.
The last survey was conducted in the year 2016, and the Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey should be conducted to obtain updated data to enable the collection of related data and indicators concerning the health and well-being targets of the Global Sustainable Development Objectives.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development to take necessary steps to conduct the aforementioned survey.
The access to secure, reliable and affordable drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities is essential to maintain public health, promote social well-being and foster economic development.
The Sri Lankan Government recognizes water supply and sanitation services as both an economic good and a basic human need. Therefore, when pricing for water and sanitation, a balance should be maintained between the financial sustainability of the service providers and the requirement to ensure fair and affordable access for all strata in the society.
Accordingly, the Sri Lankan government has identified the necessity of a national water supply that is sensitive to gender equality and social integration applicable to all water supply and sanitation service providers. At present, there is no formal national framework for setting, reviewing, approving, and implementing tariffs for water supply systems operated by various water supply providers as well as for setting, reviewing, approving, and implementing tariffs for sanitation systems.
Therefore, the Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Water Supply has formulated a water tariff policy covering all water supply service providers under the Sri Lanka Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Program, which is a policy-based loan program implemented under Asian Development Bank funds.
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Formulation of a Draft Economic Development Bill to expedite the process of Digital Transformation and Digital Economic Development
Cabinet approval for Sri Lanka Community and Health Survey – 2026/2027
A National Water Tariff Policy for all Water Supply and Sanitation Services
National Policy on Green Hydrogen in Sri Lanka
Cabinet nod to amend the Customs Ordinance
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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