Page 19 - A Gender-Sensitive Indian Foreign Policy- Why? and How?

Indian Council
of World Affairs

A gender-sensitive foreign policy is not being just sweet and
reverential, it means much more than that. It is a whole spectrum
which belongs to all genders across the spectrum that we are
talking of, the gender composition of the real world and gender
equality should be a cardinal principle in the formulation of our
foreign policy.

Swarna spoke about the fact that a gender-sensitive foreign policy is not
being just sweet and reverential, it means much more than that. It is a whole
spectrum which belongs to all genders across the spectrum that we are
talking of, the gender composition of the real world and gender equality
should be a cardinal principle in the formulation of our foreign policy. But as
a country if we are to have external credibility, the internal domestic policies
are also important because they impinge on the formulations of foreign
policy and we have to discard stereotypes, we have to think of livelihoods
for women as being important, the prevention of violence, of course we have
to remove the culture of silence and denial and also we need a sustained
dialogue within civil society with public participation across the country,
internal debate within civil society and community, townhall involvement,
a deeper commitment to human rights, taking the UN resolutions on
discrimination and the prevention of violence against women and conflict
resolution to heart because militarism affects all genders, violence affects all
of us and putting human beings at the centre - and I think that is a cardinal
precept putting human beings at the centre - creating that interdependence
which is the right thing to do. Thank you Swarna for your remarks!

Now I will invite Dr. Swati Parashar who is the Director of the Gothenburg
Centre for Globalization and Development and Associate Professor at the
School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden to
make her remarks. Again Swati’s research engages with the intersections
between feminism and post-colonialism, it is focused on violence, peace
and development issues in South Asia and East Africa; she is the author and
editor of several books and journal articles. I invite her to make her remarks.

Dr. Swati Parashar Thank you for the wonderful introductory remarks, Amb. Rao, and
(Director, Gothenburg ICWA once again thanks very much for inviting me. As I have repeatedly
Centre for Globalisation
and Development emphasised in my work, we need to be cautious about adopting simplistic
(GCGD), University of terminologies, on this occasion Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP). In my
Gothenburg, Sweden):
understanding, the kinds of concerns that governments here in the West
have, and how they direct resources towards gender equality and other
feminist causes such as FFP, need to be constantly scrutinised. Building 19
feminist solidarities in the transnational space requires a lot of work and

A GENDER-SENSITIVE INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY Why? and How?