Highlighting the initiatives of the Union government for promoting inclusion and social advancement, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said that India's development agenda is mirrored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."The Union government has chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor. Women are most vulnerable and therefore are most at risk from climate change," Mahajan said while inaugurating the first Meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarians' Forum at Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha Chamber here.She said the BRICS countries need to strengthen cooperative mechanisms and to innovate new institutional means for meeting the needs of the member countries."The BRICS countries together comprise 43 per cent of the world's population and contribute 37 per cent of the world GDP. As such, the success of the SDGs will be heavily dependent on their successful implementation in the BRICS countries," she said.
She lauded the fact that BRICS has taken impressive strides beginning from a forum for consultation on economic issues of mutual interest to evolving into a group which now has various topical global issues on its agenda. Hoping that under India's chairmanship, BRICS cooperation will be further strengthened, Mahajan said, "the role of women parliamentarians as enablers of achievement of the SDGs need to concentrate on their role as people's representatives helping to highlight the concerns of the people as well as mobilizing the participation of the citizens in issues of governance and sustainable development." She added that the 2030 Agenda also recognises the essential role to be played by the national parliaments in ensuring accountability at different stages of the policy cycle and their implementation.Earlier, complimenting Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje for successfully organising the meeting, Mahajan said there could not have been a better venue than the state of Rajasthan to discuss the theme of the meeting.As many as 35 delegates from five member countries of BRICS are participating in the two-day deliberations.