The third meeting of the India-U.S. Women’s Empowerment Dialogue (WED) was held on Feb. 27, 2012 in New York. The Dialogue was co-chaired by Ms. Neela Gangadharan, Secretary of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues in the Department of State, who both attended the 56^th session of the UN Commission on Status of Women in New York.

Secretary Gangadharan and Ambassador Verveer discussed issues related to women’s social and economic empowerment, political participation of women, early childhood education, skill development of women and girls and strengthening of institutional linkages and exchanges. They reviewed the progress that institutions in the U.S. and India have already achieved and discussed new ideas to take the dialogue forward. The two co-chairs agreed that issues related to women’s empowerment should be integrated into all aspects of the India-US Strategic Dialogue.