A 19-member delegation of the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus of Sri Lanka, led by Minister of Women and Child Affairs Saroja Savithri Paulraj, completed its first-ever official visit to India from May 10 to 16, the Indian High Commission in Colombo confirmed.
The delegation comprised 15 Members of Parliament and four parliamentary officials including the Secretary General. The programme was organised by India’s Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE) in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, under the joint framework set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to deepen parliamentary cooperation.
The MPs called on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and met India’s Minister for Women and Child Development Annapurna Devi as well as Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Discussions covered women-led development, gender equality, maternal and child welfare, the care economy, and women’s leadership in politics and governance.
The delegation also engaged with governance practitioners — interacting with Delhi Police, Anganwadi workers, and Women Self-Help Groups, and visiting the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to study digital identity systems. The FICCI Ladies Organisation hosted a roundtable on women as drivers of economic growth, while PRIDE convened sessions on legislative procedure, gender budgeting, and parliamentary committee structures.
Cultural visits took in the Taj Mahal in Agra, India Gate and the War Memorial in New Delhi, and the “Light and the Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One” exhibit at the Rai Pithora Cultural Complex.
The High Commission said the visit reaffirmed both countries’ commitment to deepening parliamentary engagement and advancing women-led transformation — the latest in a steady run of bilateral programmes under the AKD-Modi framework.
