NEW DELHI: "India has made tremendous progress in the field of women's development, if reservation in the Panchayati Raj Institutions and promoting the concept of gender budgeting are any indication," the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) executive director, Noeleen Heyzer, has said.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Ms. Heyzer said it was heartening to know that 22 States and 18 Departments had been asked to incorporate gender perspective in budgeting.

She singled out as memorable her work with Indian Railways employees through a special HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention programme at Vijayawada junction, Andhra Pradesh.

The programme was launched three years ago for the 1.8 million railway employees and about a million people who use this junction.

"We seem to have broken the stigma and the labour unions now want us to accelerate our work,'' she said.

According to her, the Railways has initiated a policy of administering free treatment to HIV/AIDS employees or by supplying cheap drugs.

Families of the railway employees are involved in the campaign in a big way.

"Outside the junction, the programme has helped in creating hundreds of young men and women leaders in schools and colleges who now have an open dialogue on the issue which was taboo a few years ago,'' Ms. Heyzer said.

She said that a three-day U.N. regional conference on "Development Effectiveness Through Gender Mainstreaming'' beginning Tuesday would seek to assess progress towards gender equality and rural poverty reduction, based on case studies and analysis of experiences of rural women in South Asian countries.

It will also try to identify policy options, which the Governments can consider in mainstreaming gender in development programmes for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals.

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