The Southern Regional Seminar on the National Policy for the Empowerment of Women (NPEW) at Cochin is an outcome of the National Workshop organized by the National Forum for Women's Rights (NFWR) during 17-18 August, 2001 at the Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi which recommended a series regional and state level seminars across the country to initiate a process of discussions on the Policy to make it effective. The present seminar at Cochin was first in this series of seminars and was organized in collaboration with the Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology and the Institute of Management in Government, Regional Centre, Cochin.

The main thrust of the seminar was to discuss the NPEW with a cross section of individuals and organisations with a view to disseminate the content, clarify the roles of different stakeholders and evolve appropriate strategies to make the NPEW an effective instrument for furthering the cause of gender justice. Accordingly, women's organizations, academics, activists and government d4partmentsz and agencies were invited to participate in the seminar. A brief write up about the seminar and the NPEW were sent to them in advance to familiarize with themes and issues that are expected to come up for discussion in the seminar.