Hyderabad, April 04: Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Daggubati Purandeswari has said that educating girls/ women to empower them on their rights is the only way to check female foeticide and other atrocities committed against the fairer sex.
Addressing a seminar on ‘Empowering women for betterment of social, economical, educational, political and spiritual way of life’ here on Sunday, she expressed concern that in spite of so many laws on protection of women, day after day instances of husbands beating wives, brides being burnt and girls being at home were occurring.
While science and technology was supposed to help achieve progress of society, it was being used to detect the gender of the foetus. Unfortunately, lot of abortions were happening today, she added. There were also instances of discrimination against the girl child even in matters of providing food and sending her to good school. She also cited the social evil of child marriages.
Emphasising the importance of educating the girl child, the Union Minister pointed out that if a woman was educated, the entire family would be educated.
She also called upon parents to inculcate ethical values in children and promote traditions and culture of the country.
Referring to the success of the initiative launched by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in providing 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies, she said that in some States, the reservation was increased to 50 per cent.
The seminar was organised by Jain International Women Organisation (JIWO) as part of ‘Happy Women Happy World’ programme.
–Agencies