Gender sensitivity key feature in planning: ITPI Women’s Forum

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 11(PTI) The planning sector has the potential to foster women empowerment as gender sensitivity plays a key role in urban planning practice, the Women Planners Forum of the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI) said here on Saturday.

In a special presentation at the 73rd National Town and Country Planners Conference, organised by ITPI, New Delhi with the support of the Local Self Government Department of Kerala government, the Women’s Forum said that gender sensitivity was an important aspect in the current planning practice, an ITPI release said.

In their presentation, the Women’s Forum highlighted a slew of suggestions such as inclusion and representation of women in decision-making process of ITPI, besides importance of creating more job opportunities, reservations and encouraging research and grant awards on gender-inclusive cities, the release said.

Deepti J Vyas, Chairman of the ITPI Women’s Planners Forum and an architect at D Vyas and Associates in Indore, said that out of the 8,700 members in ITPI, more than 3,000 were women.

"In the Google Forms survey conducted by the Forum, 80 per cent of women planners exuded the feeling that the planning sector has a potential for women empowerment. They also gave suggestions for gender sensitivity in planning,” she said, according to the release.

The National Town and Country Planners Conference, being held from January 10-12, deliberated on a host of topics, including the presentation by the Women's Forum, related to urban and country development.

Another topic, besides gender sensitivity and women empowerment, that was discussed in one of the plenary sessions of the conference was regarding improving municipal finance management.

Experts said that municipal finance management needs to be improved through timely reforms to enable Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to raise adequate funds for implementing projects with greater transparency and accountability, a separate ITPI release said.

It further said that the experts were of the view that while it was vital for ULBs to tap all viable sources to raise finances to implement civic projects to meet the demands of the burgeoning urban population, it is equally important to ensure transparency and accountability in fiscal management.

'Intelligent, Digital Spatial Planning and Governance' is the focal theme of the three-day conference.

Shrikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagrah, Bengaluru, was quoted as having said that transparency in resource mobilisation and distribution, reinforced by timely and standardised information, was vital to improve the fiscal governance of civic bodies.

"Municipal bodies are yet to achieve a high level of efficiency in making audited accounts available within the time frame set for that. However, of late, there has been a visible improvement in this matter with digitisation of processes and infusion of professionalism in accounting practice," he said, according to the release.

Presiding over the session, Professor B K Sengupta, former professor IIT Kharagpur, was quoted as having said that the growth of the cities as engines of growth called for enhancing the financial capacity of the urban local bodies by strengthening their financial autonomy.

The conference will conclude on Sunday with a field visit of project sites, the release said. PTI HMP HMP ROH