Tamil Nadu State New Policy for Women 2024

Tamil Nadu Cabinet has approved new “Tamil Nadu State New Policy for Women 2024” on January 23, 2024. Earlier State of Tamil Nadu has released its “New Policy for Women 2021” on December 29, 2021. This policy will be implemented for more than five years.

Women’s empowerment can be said to encompass five aspects

1. improving women’s sense of self-worth;
2. their right to have and determine choices in matters that concern them;

their right to have access to opportunities and resources;

1. their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and
2. their ability to influence their environment to ensure social justice and create an equitable social and economic order.

Guiding principles

• Enhancing access to all services – health, education, employment, skilling and training
• Enabling environments that restructure gender norms and behaviour linked changes that would consider the aspirations, expectations and attitudes of all
• Empowering women and preparing from the adolescent stage their entry and transition to high end opportunities in high growth sectors
• Elimination of violence against women and build on a comprehensive and integrated framework that would have zero tolerance to any kind of discrimination and violence against women and girls.

Core Objectives

The policy would be implemented over a period of 5 years and aims to:

1. Improve the nutritional outcomes of adolescents while addressing anemia and underweight by atleast half.
2. Bring additional 1 crore women into the SHG fold. Atleast 1,00,000 women enterprises would be formed by graduating from livelihoods through intensive mentoring and extensive networking and handholding through mentors.
3. Bridge the Digital gender Gap among women by increased internet accessibility and availability in both urban and rural areas.
4. To facilitate data driven and evidence based policy making, all Departments shall be committed to provide gender disaggregated data annually.
5. Decrease dropouts by 10% every year in secondary and by increasing tertiary enrollment rates of girl students by 5% every year.
6. Support to at least 1000 women Student researchers every year especially in STEM from amongst disadvantaged sections of society.
7. Reach out to 10,000 women to reduce the skill gap with the appropriate technology training to allow for lateral entry at the mid career level – second career entry for women who have quit their career for raising family or mobility issues.
8. Enhance Institutional credit access and availability to women in need through establishment of Women’s Bank. (வாழ்ந்துகாட்டுபெண்ணே ).
9. Improve self worth of women through increased confidence levels by training all school and College students in martial arts. All schools, colleges and other institutions shall ensure non-discrimination of gender and move towards gender equality.
10. Promote entrepreneurship and innovation, inclusive targeting to handhold and mentor 1 lakh women owned enterprises.
11. Increased women’s participation in workforce leading to 40% share of state GSDP
12. Provide safe and women friendly public spaces and work spaces including Government Departments with a functional Internal Complaints Committee and Local Complaints Committee with regular third party gender safety audit.
13. Ensure filing of FIRs and reporting within 24 hours of the crime incident coming to light.
14. Establish a system of Victim support to all cases of abuse that focuses on rehabilitation and identity protection at the first instance without delay to ensure that women do not feel abandoned.
15. Make available support systems for women at every 10km radius who are in need of emotional support mechanisms.
16. All women Headed Households in Tamil Nadu would be covered under Social security schemes based on their requirement.
17. Improve sex ratio at birth in Tamil Nadu the best in India.
18. Encourage private, public sector listed companies, quasi government organizations, boards to provide 50% women in leadership positions
19. To encourage women to participate in political space without hindrance a finishing school to learn the basics of polity and various acts and provisions would be set up.
20. Strengthen women grievance redressal through a direct phone-in programmewith the Hon’ble Chief Minister would be conducted once in six months.