Announce Initiatives Focused on Financial Assistance and Empowerment  

In India, political candidates are making concerted efforts to garner the support of women voters. In a move away from traditional campaigns that focus on caste and religion, new initiatives include highlighting targeted benefit packages that would provide women with financial support and promote empowerment. In advance of upcoming elections, Arvind Kejriwal—the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party), which currently governs Delhi—announced the Mahila Samman Yojana, or Respect for Women Program, that would provide all women over the age of eighteen with one thousand rupees, or $12, monthly. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made similar campaign promises. The BJP was also responsible for passing legislation last year that would reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women. “Women appear to be voting more than men, and they are voting as a bloc. They have become a bigger issue in Indian politics than religion and caste,” said Yashwant Deshmukh, founder of C-Voter. “Once everybody understands that the female voter is the key, they will ride the bandwagon and nobody will want to be seen as the person who was standing against female reservation,” he continued. 

Congress Pushes Biden to Ratify Equal Rights Amendment 

This week, more than one hundred members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). If ratified, the ERA would guarantee that the rights affirmed by the U.S. Constitution are held equally by all citizens without regard to their sex. This campaign comes after forty-five senators sent a similar letter to Biden last month. In 1972, both houses of Congress approved the ERA, but the necessary number of states—thirty-eight—failed to ratify it within the required seven-year time window. The ERA only reached this threshold in 2020, when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been leading the charge on ERA ratification, arguing that the rules restricting ratification to the seven-year time frame are unconstitutional. Although the ratification would likely be challenged in the Supreme Court, signatories to the letter wrote that this “action is essential as we prepare to transition to an administration that has been openly hostile to reproductive freedom, access to health care, and LGBTQIA+ rights.” The letter went on to say, “We believe that recognizing the ERA’s ratification would not only fulfill the promise of equality enshrined in our founding documents but would also stand as a defining achievement of your presidency—one that will reverberate across generations.” However, in a blow to efforts, the Archivist of the United States notified the President in a statement earlier this week that she could not legally certify the ERA as part of the Constitution.  

UN Report Urges Highlights Crisis Faced by Women and Girls in Sudan  

In a new Gender Alert, UN Women is highlighting the dire situation for women and girls in Sudan. According to UN Women, nearly 6.9 million people are currently vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV), and since December 2023, the number of survivors seeking services for GBV and conflict-related sexual violence has increased by 288 percent. Despite these alarming statistics, local women-led organizations that provide necessary resources for survivors are receiving less than 2 percent of funding from the Sudan Humanitarian Fund. As a result, less than 10 percent of the population is able to access support. “The suffering of women and girls in Sudan is a stark reminder of the gendered impacts of conflict,” said Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. “The deliberate and targeted use of sexual violence as a tool of war is a gross violation of human rights and international law. Together, we can ensure that the dignity and safety of women and girls are at the heart of humanitarian responses. We call on all parties to take immediate action to end these atrocities, and more broadly to put an end to this war and restore peace.”