Panchayati raj and rural development minister CP Joshi said here on Friday that India should have 50 percent participation of women in the corporate world and they should be active members in their respective local self governments.

He was speaking at an international conference on women organised by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) which brought together the panchayati raj and rural development ministry in India and the government of Norway.

“We have two things to learn from Norway, one that they have local self government being run by women and two there is 50 percent participation of women in the corporate world. We need to adopt a similar model to empower the women of our country,” said Joshi.

The governments of Norway and India signed a memorandum of understanding for implementation of the programme in six Indian states, namely, Odissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. Norway has committed about $10 million for the implementation of the programme. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan will also benefit from this programme.

“India has been at the forefront among all the south-Asian countries encouraging women’s participation at all levels of the government with the women’s reservation bill being debated in parliament currently. Devolution of 33 percent statutory reservations in gram panchayat seats has been undertaken in states of India. Additionally, some states like have reserved as much as 50 percent seats for women,” said a press note by UNIFEM.

It added that despite an increase in the number of women coming forward to join politics, several factors like unsupportive legal frameworks, violence against women in politics, lack of economic empowerment for women representatives in local governments to make public policy discourage them from contesting elections.

The event was launched on the occasion of birthday of former late prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Regional Programme Director for UNIFEM (part of UN women) Anne F Stenhammer and Norway’s international development and environment minister Eric Solheim were also present at the conference.