Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Mrs Kalpana Devi Koonjoo-Shah, announced, this afternoon, in Port Louis, during a press conference reviewing the year 2022, that a series of Bills would be introduced at the National Assembly in 2023 with a view to better protect, and provide the required support to, women and children
Hence, the Protection from Domestic Violence Act would be amended and the Adoption Bill presented to the National Assembly while consultations were ongoing in regard to the draft Gender Equality Bill.
The press conference on the achievements of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare enabled Mrs Koonjoo-Shah to list all the measures being implemented by Government to put an end to gender-based violence.
She informed that out of the 157 output indicators featuring in the National Strategy and Action Plan for the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence 2020-2024, which was launched in November 2020, 77 had been completed while 75 were ongoing.
Concerning the mobile application ‘Lespwar’ which enables a victim of gender-based violence to rapidly connect with the relevant authorities through a panic button, some 3,636 people downloaded the app and 2,000 requested help through the app.
Some 600 domestic violence cases were reported on the hotline of the Family Welfare and Protection Unit, 139. In addition, a one-stop assistance centre was established in Abercrombie, Phoenix, Rose-Hill, and Souillac to give women access to the services geared towards their protection and empowerment.
Moreover, in the context of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry and the Mauritius Research Innovation Council to set up the Gender-Based Violence Observatory, a study to better understand gender-based violence in Mauritius was ongoing.
The Minister commented that this study would enable Government to enhance their policy decisions and find better means to protect women. She stressed that to end gender-based violence, concerted efforts and participation of every Mauritian together with denunciation of all forms of violence were important.
On that score, Mrs Koonjoo-Shah spoke of the mural painting competitions, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, in May 2022, to encourage students from 42 primary and 42 secondary schools in raising awareness on gender-based violence.
Regarding the protection of children, the Minister recalled that the Children’s Act 2020, the Children’s Court Act 2020 and the Child Sex Offenders Register Act 2020 were promulgated in January 2022 together with the Child Day Care Centres Regulations 2022, the Foster Care Regulations 2022 and the Residential Care Institutions for Children Regulations 2022.
She added that awareness campaigns were held on the provisions of the Children’s Act 2020. According to the Minister, the Child Services Coordinating Panel, set up under the Children’s Act 2020 for, among others, the coordination of all activities relating to the implementation of Act, had met more than eight times in the endeavor to giving better protection to children.
Government’s determination to promote gender equality was also reiterated by Mrs Koonjoo-Shah. She hence put forward the launch of the National Gender Policy for 2022-2030, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2022, which underpinned Government’s commitment to integrate gender into all development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Awareness building exercises as regards the concept of gender-equality were deemed, too, by Mrs Koonjoo-Shah to be essential to achieve real equality of rights for men and women.
The Minister expressed satisfaction as well that the National Women Entrepreneur Council resumed its regional fairs for registered women entrepreneurs following the lifting of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
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