Around 150 women dignitaries from member countries, guest countries and special invitees to participate in two-day W-20 inception meet starting tomorrow in Aurangabad, Maharashtra

Aurangabad, 26 February 2023

The two-days‘ Inception Meeting of Women-20 (W-20) will cover various topics like Empowering Women in Nano, Micro and Startup Enterprises, Role of Women as Changemakers in Climate Resilience Action, Creating an Enabling Ecosystem for Women Leaders at the Grassroots, Improving Access through Infrastructure & Skill to bridge the Gender Digital Divide, Creating Pathways for Women through Education & Skilling, Enablers for Women-led Development: Policy & Legal Frameworks. There will also be a special session on Women–led Development in India.

A curtain-raiser press conference on this was addressed by Dr. Sandhya Purecha, Chair, W-20, in presence of Ms. Dharitri Pattnaik, Chief Coordinator, W-20 in Aurangabad today. Dr. Purecha informed that W20 in India’s G20 Presidency will focus on five priority areas which are as follows:

Grassroots women Leadership
Women Entrepreneurship
Bridging the Gender Digital Divide
Women & Girls as change makers in Climate Change
Creating Pathways through Education & Skill Development

Dr. Purecha also said that W-20 India’s vision is to create a world of equality & equity where every woman lives with dignity and the mission is to remove all barriers to women led development and ensure an enabling environment and ecosystem for women to thrive, transcend and transform their lives as well as others. W20 will bring out various knowledge products- white papers, policy briefs, video documentaries, opinion pieces, handbook and communique with the purpose of influencing G20 nations and leaders to make women’s agenda at the core of G-20 deliberations, she stated.

W-20 Chief Coordinator Dharitri Patnaik informed that around 150 delegates from member countries, guest countries and special invitees will participate in the deliberations from tomorrow. The emphasis of W20 will be to influence the G20 Leaders’ Declaration and G20 Communiqué and take steps to build consensus for active engagement with women entrepreneurs, and commitments to policies that will advance gender equality, she stated while explaining the working process of the engagement group.

A Jan Bhagidari (People’s Participation) event was also held in the city today, which saw the participation of around a 1000 women from different walks of life, including anganwadi workers, women from various NGOs and many other grassroots level women workers. Dr. Farahdibha Tenrilemba, leader of the Indonesian delegation, Elena Myakotnikova of Russian delegation, South Korean delegate Ms. Angela Joo-Hyun Kang, South African delegate Ms. Sibulele Poswayo and Japanese delegate Ms. Satoko Kono participated in the interactive session.

The event began with an enchanting cultural performance by Mahagami, emphasising the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India and ended with a Q&A round where the Indian women interacted with the W20 delegates. The theme of the event was ‘Journey to Empowerment’ and W-20 aims to deliver on its vision of engaging with the citizens to promote good governance and increased stakeholder participation in policy formulation and decision making. W-20 Chair Dr. Sandhya Purecha along with foreign delegates and women from different communities and age groups across India were present on the occasion Dr. Purecha explained that India’s G20 Presidency would be a watershed moment in her history as it seeks to play an important role by finding pragmatic global solutions for the wellbeing of all, and in doing so, manifest the true spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or the ‘World is One Family’.

Through this event, W20 aims to increase the grassroots level engagement of global citizens in India’s G20 and W20 Presidency, delivering on its vision of inclusivity, stated Dr. Purecha. Dr. Sandipanrao Bhumre, Guardian Minister of Aurangabad and MGM University Registrar Dr. Ashish Gadekar.