ICGE to focus on economic potential of women and transgenders

Gender Park to host conference from February 11 to 13

The second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE) to be held on the Gender Park campus in Kozhikode from February 11 to 13 will focus on measures to unleash the economic potential of women and transgenders to empower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs.

Policymakers, academics, professionals, and domain experts from across the globe attending the event will also brainstorm the crucial linkages between entrepreneurship, economic growth, and poverty alleviation, which are in tune with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

ICGE is a signature event of the Gender Park. The three-day conference will also discuss ways to make entrepreneurship and social businesses more gender-inclusive, to facilitate the active participation of women and transgenders.

The focal theme of the event is ‘Gender in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business: The Mediating Role of Empowerment’. Though women entrepreneurship in the State has made rapid growth, it has not been properly recorded. In the case of transgenders, even accurate statistics regarding their entrepreneurship are not available, since the issue has never been a topic of serious debate.

The Gender Park views the theme of ICGE to be relevant for India and more so for Kerala, with high levels of educated unemployment, which is significant among women.

The first edition of ICGE was centred around ‘Gender, Governance and Inclusion’ and saw the official release of the Kerala State Policy for Transgenders, 2015. Transgender leaders also participated and discussed the relevance of the policy in their lives.