India – UN Joint issue, Women HeForShe – 8th March 2016.

Gender inequality is one of the most persistent human rights violations of our time. Despite many years of promoting gender equality, inequalities among women/girls and men/boys continue to manifest in egregious ways around the world. HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality developed by UN Women (the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women). Its goal is to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights. The campaign encourages them to speak out and take action against inequalities faced by women and girls. Grounded in the idea that gender equality is an issue that affects all people—socially, economically and politically—it seeks to actively involve men and boys in a movement that was originally conceived as “a struggle for women by women”. Since its launch on 20 September 2014, at the United Nations by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, hundreds of thousands of men from around the world including Heads of State, CEOs and global luminaries, from all walks of life have committed to gender equality. HeForShe has been the subject of more than two billion conversations on social media, with off-line activities reaching every corner of the globe.

To celebrate gender equality and International Women’s Day India Post and the United Nations Postal Administration jointly issued HeForShe postage stamps that promote gender equality and showcase UN Women’s campaign to engage men and boys as agents of change for women’s rights.

India Post issued Se-tenant Stamps and Miniature Sheet on the theme "India-UN Women HeforShe" at Dak Bhawan, New Delhi on 8th March 2016. Stamps were jointly released by Shri S. K. Sinha, Member (Planning) and Rebecca Tavares, UN Women representative for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka in presence of other officials of India Post. The se-tenant stamps depict half a face of man and half face of woman in denomination of Rs. 5 and Rs. 25. The images portray girls and women as fully half of humanity and exactly equal to the other – male – half. Together, they make a whole world.