Speech On Women Empowerment

     I want to begin today with a kind of  puzzle!! But its a fact, this was there in a movie too but unanswered.

Among the 15 prime ministers in India, only one was women, out of the 13 presidents only one was women. Is it because there weren’t  enough talented women in our nation? Or is it because someone is deciding on her dreams, limits and validity.  Who decides the expiry date of a women’s dream?. 

This is a serious debate topic.. I would like to leave that puzzle again into the minds of the people, similar like the script writer's intentions.

People often talk about women empowerment.. What in real sense does that mean.. Right from the time of indenpendence our nation is looking to empower the women in our nation.. When british left India,  the literacy rate of India was 16%. And when we had that 16% literacy rate do you know the female literacy rate was?.  8.9% at the time of Independence, just 1 out of 11 women can read and write. Ofcourse expansion took place after that, by 2013 women’s literacy is 66%, better than the 8.9, but it still means one out of every three Indian women still cant read and write. We need to overcome that.

Promotion of adult literacy is one of the best excercise, but its a huge challenge, people think what’s the point in learning to read and write at the age of 50’s and 60’s the answer is that ,it changes their life, it empowers them in real ways. Being able to read and write helps them for ex: to read the destination of the bus, they don’t need to ask anyone, they can read the street signs, they don’t feel helpless anymore. That empowerment is what literacy give people in very fundamental way.

In a global scenario, things are not different. Women represent half of the world’s population. Yet they represent far less than half of measured economic activity.

Today, there are about 865 million women around the world who have the potential to contribute more fully—almost a “blocked billion”.

Everywhere around the world, men participate more than women. These gender gaps range from 12 percent in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies to 50 percent in the Middle East and North Africa.

When women do participate, they tend to be stuck in low-paying, low-status jobs. Globally, women earn only three-quarters as much as men—this is true even with the same level of education, and in the same occupation. Surely one of the most basic norms of justice is “equal pay for equal work”?

We all know the problem—across all fields of work, the higher you climb, the fewer women you see.

Let me conclude :

We have certainly made  strides toward gender equality. But while our foot might be in the door, we are still standing outside—in the cold.

It is now time to fulfill the promise—to create a world where every little girl from every corner of every continent can fulfill her potential without impediment and without prejudice. To make sure that nobody ever again will doubt  for even an instant that a woman can be a leader in any field that she might choose. And let the dreams come true for every women!!

Thank you very much..

Let us stand for the equality of gender, and rebuild our nation together!!.

                                                                                                     

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