To promote measures to reduce gender-based violence.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A quarter-million dollar grant has been given by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to one of its programs that promotes safety for women in New Delhi.
The grant is being given to the UN Women organization, which the UN created for the purpose of working toward the empowerment of women and girls throughout the world.
The $250,000 grant is also part of USAID’s “Delhi Safe City – Free of Violence Against Women and Girls” campaign, which was launched at least partly in response to last year’s horrific gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus. The incident garnered international attention and led to death convictions for four of the perpetrators.
Nancy J. Powell, the US Ambassador to India, released a statement on Tuesday when the grant was first announced, saying “We [the US] are pleased to partner with UN Women to help promote safe cities and reduce gender-based violence, which plagues every country in the world,” adding, “gender-based violence [is] one of the most debilitating factors impeding a woman’s active participation in any economy in the world and her ability to access resources and services.”
The Safe City program exists in multiple metropolises around the globe, and strives to create a safer and less fearful environment for women in society. The program works with several tiers of infrastructure, such as transportation, civic planning, public transportation, electrical, and other. Working together with bureaucracy, the Safe City program aims to do things like install more public lighting so women can walk at night without fear, among other services. They also engage in advocacy, particularly with men, to change archaic patriarchal mindsets so that women are treated fairly and respectfully