What men can do, women can do better -- this was the underlying theme of a working session on women on the second day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in New Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan.
While the session's guest of honour was National Commission for Women Chairperson Girija Vyas, Minister of State of Women and Child Development Renuka Choudhury was the chief guest.
Among the speakers were MPs Brinda Karat and Prema Cariappa; Rajani Patil, chairperson, Central Social Welfare Board and Sushmita Ghosh, President, Emeritus, Ashoka USA. The session was moderated by Anu Aga, director, Thermax Ltd, and chairperson, CII's Women Empowerment Committee.
As Aga attempted to initiate the talks by stating 'women in Indian society are respected and glorified', Karat did not waste a minute to interrupt, "not always." That set the tone for an afternoon of interesting conversations.
As always, Choudhury's speech was direct and categorical and she cited one reason after another why discrimination against women needs to be shunned.
"In 2020, India will have the youngest productive force in the world and around that time every sixth global citizen will be Indian. Yet, it's a pity that such a growing society still holds a stepmotherly attitude towards the fairer sex," she said.
"It pains me to say that even today, women run the risk of losing their lives during childbirth. With diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS doing the rounds, we have not yet been able to guarantee lowest mortality rates for them."
"I, therefore, appeal to the NRIs to help us improve the standards of life in Indian women. The onus rests on us to assist women grow into a force as powerful as their male counterparts. It is time that we concentrate on the key issues of development for women -- survival, growth and development."
Vyas took up from where Choudhury left and she lauded the United Progressive Alliance Government for passing the Domestic Violence Bill in October 2006. Another Bill -- Sexual Harassment at Workplace -- she said would go a long way in assisting working women.
"Women are often heard to say, I don't know why we are standing on the same place in spite of walking