Empowering women, transgenders to become entrepreneurs to be focal point at ICGE

Measures to unleash theeconomic potential of women and transgender persons that wouldempower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs will be thefocus of the second edition of the International Conference onGender Equality (ICGE), a signature event of the Keralagovernments Gender Park, commencing from February 11.

Policymakers, academics, professionals anddomain experts from across the globe attending the event willalso brainstorm the crucial links between entrepreneurship,economic growth and poverty alleviation, which are in tunewith the UNs 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a pressrelease here said.

A roadmap will be drawn up to help facilitatewomen and transgenders for their active participation inentrepreneurship and social businesses by making the processmore gender inclusive, especially during the challenging timesof the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship andSocial Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment' is thefocal theme of the event, to be held at the Parks sprawlingcampus in Kozhikode from February 11-13.

It is significant to note that the 13th FiveYear Plan (2017-22) has laid great emphasis on encouragingentrepreneurship among women.

This seeks to create more job opportunities forwomen, thereby empowering them to be economically self-reliant, Kerala Health, Social Justice and Women and ChildDevelopment Minister K K Shailaja, said.

Though women entrepreneurship in the state hasachieved rapid growth, that has not been properly recorded.

Despite persistent efforts, sustainable womenentrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship have not becomethe topic of serious debate.In the case of transgenderpersons, even accurate statistics regarding theirentrepreneurship are not available, she added.

Gender Park CEO Dr P T M Sunish said the theme ofthe ICGE-II is relevant for India and more so for Kerala, withhigh levels of educated unemployment, which is significantamong women.

Despite several initiatives, issues related tosustainable entrepreneurship and social businesses have notyet been mainstreamed into the discussion on womensemployment and engagement in entrepreneurship.

Transgender individuals have witnessed even worseconditions in the absence of conclusive data about them in thecountrys gender statistics.

The first edition of ICGE was centred around'Gender, Governance and Inclusion' and saw the officialrelease of the Kerala State Policy for Transgenders, 2015.