Empowerment of women working in public sector enterprises is crucial for enhancing growth and promoting competitiveness in the economy, the apex body of PSUs in the country SCOPE said on Wednesday.

“Public sector women employees must take concrete steps under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes for developing skills and increasing overall employment generation. This will improve the rural economy leading to increase in GDP,” SCOPE Director General U D Choubey said.

“Indian public sector firms have adopted best practices to ensure equal opportunity and provide harmonious environment for advancement and growth of women employees by conducting several programmes on gender issues, sexual harassment and decent working conditions,” Choubey said.

Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), is the apex body of Central Government-owned Public Enterprises.

SCOPE has all the central public enterprises, a few state government enterprises and some nationalised banks as its members.