The Women and Child Friendly Village (DRPPA) Program aims for development at an inclusive grassroots level, Women Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga stated at a webinar participated from here, Thursday.

During the webinar titled “Asserting Women’s Leadership Develops Women and Child Firendly Villages,” Puspayoga emphasized that women were seeking policies, programs, and mechanisms that were specific and responsive to their needs.

This is owing to the fact that women were still categorized as a vulnerable group, she noted.

The gender gap in Indonesia can be observed through a variety of indexes and data, starting from the Human Development Index to the Gender Development Index, and Gender Empowerment Index, she highlighted.

According to the gender-based human development data in 2020, the gender gap is worse in villages as compared to cities.

“To this end, in order to attain gender equality, various interventions are required up to the village level and starts from the village level, with 74,961 villages,” she affirmed.

The ministry is collaborating with the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions Development, and Transmigration Ministry in pushing for the realization of the Women and Child Friendly Village Program.

The formulation of this program supports the women’s empowerment and child protection targets in pursuit of competitive Indonesian human resources.

Some 300 women from five provinces and 10 districts are partaking in the Village Women Leadership Training 2021 to be held continuously in 34 provinces until 2024.

Earlier, Puspayoga highlighted her ministry’s target to complete the work to build 142 women- and child-friendly villages, spread across 71 districts and cities in 33 provinces by 2022.

On September 23, 2021, the minister noted that once the model for these villages is completed, then it can be expanded and replicated in every village in every city and district.

Source: Antara News