President to inaugurate India's first gender park in Kozhikode

KOZHIKODE: President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the country's first  "Gender Park" during a visit to Kerala at the end of this week.

President Mukherjee will inaugurate the 24-acre park in Kozhikode on February 27. The main aim of the park will be to promote research and other initiatives to facilitate complete gender equality.

The Department of Social Justice of the government in cooperation with academia and civil society has been instrumental in creating this common platform to address various gender issues.

A gender institute in the park would focus on learning, research and capacity development, as part of supporting the efforts of the state and central governments in ensuring an inclusive, discrimination free society.

The institute would cover issues pertaining to all three genders as per the 2015 gender and transgender policies of the state government.

The authorities have the plan to link knowledge creation to policy-making through a multi-disciplinary research and learning process and, eventually, turn the park into the first Gender University in the country.

The complex has been christened as the "Thantedam Gender Park" and it has come up at Vellimadukunnu in Kerala's Kozhikkode District. The foundation stone of the park was laid on March 8, 2013.