Bhubaneswar, July 16: The Orissa panchayati raj department and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) have signed an agreement for promoting women’s political leadership and empowering the elected women representatives in local government.

At present, the programme is being implemented in six states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajastahan.

The main objectives of the programme are capacity building of the elected women representatives at the gram sabha-level, research and policy advocacy to address the legal and political issues pertaining to local self-governance and evolution of a centre of excellence.

The programme will be launched in Gajapati and Dhenkanal districts on a pilot basis. The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) will function as the state-level nodal agency while the UN Women will engage a district programme officer. The programme officer will assist the UN Women and the SIRD in implementation of the programme at district-level.

On behalf of the Orissa government, panchayati raj secretary Pradip Kumar Jena and UN Women regional programme director Sushma Kapoor signed the memorandum in presence of panchayati raj minister Maheswar Mohanty and officers of the UN Women.

Mohanty said the Orissa government was committed for women’s development. “The state has already made provisions for reservation of 50 per cent seats for women in the three-tier panchayati raj system. A number of sustainable livelihood programmes had already been initiated for the economic uplift of the rural womenfolk,” he said.

Despite the devolution of power, women are not being encouraged to enter politics because of rising violence against them in politics, lack of economic empowerment for women representatives, patriarchal society and unsupportive legal frameworks.