News Excerpt:

U.N. Women will work closely with Kerala’s gender parks and provide technical assistance for the Safe City project and gender data hub.

Key highlights of the UN Women's visit to Kerala:

• They have suggested that the state attempt to study the issues in online space by treating it as a public space.
• The U.N. Women's delegation appreciated the State’s efforts towards women's empowerment, particularly the Gender Budget.

Kerala’s Gender Parks:

• Its objective is to establish a secure and sustained ecosystem to empower women entrepreneurs and provide them with a platform to market their products.
• The Gender Museum, Gender Library, Convention Centre, and an amphitheatre formed the first phase of the pioneering project to boost gender equality in the subcontinent.

Safe City Project:

• An initiative of Government of India under the Nirbhaya funds scheme for ensuring safety of women and children.
• The Safe City project aims to create a safe, secure and empowering environment for women in public places to enable them to pursue all opportunities without the threat of gender-based violence and/or harassment. 
• It further aims to prevent and curb all forms of crimes against women and girl children in public places by providing safer urban infrastructure and efficient access to law enforcement agencies.
• The Empowered Committee under Nirbhaya Fund has approved Safe City projects in eight selected cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow).

Gender Budgeting:

• Gender Budgeting (GB) was adopted by the Government of India as a powerful tool for promoting gender equality and ensuring adequate budgetary provisions through gender-responsive planning and budgeting processes. 
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) is the nodal Ministry for Gender Budgeting. 
• ‘Mission Shakti’ is a scheme in mission mode aimed at strengthening interventions for women's safety, security, and empowerment during the 15th Finance Commission period from 2021-25. 
• It seeks to realize the Government’s commitment to women-led development by addressing issues affecting women on a life-cycle continuum basis and by making them equal partners in nation-building through convergence and citizen-ownership. 
• Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes viz., ‘Sambal’ for the safety and security of women and ‘Samarthya’ for women's empowerment. 
• The Gender Budgeting Scheme is an integral component under the ‘Samarthya’ sub-scheme.