Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's speech at the National Conference on women's role in Nation-Building

"I feel privileged to be here today to inaugurate this very important national conference on the role of our women in processes of nation building. Is it not a comment on our social and political consciousness that we still feel it necessary to organize such a conference on a theme as obvious as this? Can it ever be that half the population of a nation has to even reiterate its relevance to the processes of nation building?

The time has come for us to give due place in our society including our political institutions, our economic processes and in every walk of life, to our mothers, sisters and daughters. To those who make our homes, nurture our children, shape and mould the citizens of India of tomorrow.

No nation can stand proud if it discriminates against any of its citizens. Certainly no society can claim to be a part of the modern civilized world unless it treats its women on par with men. The time for genuine and full empowerment of our women is here and now. This is an idea whose time has truly come, but whose realisation we must all now work to ensure and to make this happen.

We in our country must never forget our own proud legacy in this regard. No democratic revolution had ever before given women equality of status as our leaders did during our own freedom movement. Even the French Revolution did not give equality or fraternity or true liberty to the French women. Against this backdrop of history, India's freedom struggle made a historic and heroic departure by upholding women's rights. Mahatma Gandhi declared that as long as women of India did not take part in public life there was no salvation for our country. Large-scale participation of women became the defining feature of our struggle for our independence. Out of that came the recognition that our men must play their due role in all processes of governance.

Our Constitution was based on the idea of gender equality and the necessity to empower women. When we found that in actual practice this was not getting reflected, leaders of the stature of Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indiraji and Rajiv Gandhi took specific steps to promote gender equality and women's empowerment. I recall Indiraji asking the Planning Commission to focus specially on "Women and Development" when we were drafting the IV Five-Year Plan. We all recall the fact that one-third reservation for women in Panchayat Raj Institutions was an idea that was very dear to Shri Rajiv Gandhi. It is in pursuance of this commitment that the Congress Party has steadfastly sought a greater role for women in the highest institutions of decision making in the country including State Legislatures and Parliament at the Centre.

Every five years, a million women are being elected to the Panchayats of our country. This large-scale mobilization of women in the public life of our country is an unprecedented event. It is the most important political intervention aimed at the empowerment of women anywhere in the world. We salute the role played by Rajivji in launching this great journey of women's empowerment in India.

The time has now come for us to move ahead on this path. The Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government recognizes the political, legal, educational, and economic empowerment of women as one of our top most priorities. We consider the empowerment of women as one of the key principles of good governance.

We have already taken several steps in this regard. The gender responsive legislation and gender responsive budgeting that we have initiated will go a long way in making governments and governance more gender sensitive. We are pursuing legislation that will provide flexibility in working hours to women and encourage greater employment of women in the industrial and services sectors. We have passed a bill on protection of women from domestic violence. We have effected changes in the Criminal Procedure Code and the Hindu Succession Act to empower our women.

I am also greatly heartened by the increasing assertion of women's organisations in the campaign against violence against women and in movements demanding equal access of women to education and employment. The NGOs and State governments that have empowered women through the growth and spread of micro-credit and self-help groups have recently won the admiration of distinguished visitors from abroad including the President of the World Bank who told me that these are the best examples of women's empowerment anywhere in the world. Government - NGO partnership has been successful in enlisting the participation of women in governance.

Therefore, I am convinced that the empowerment of women must begin at the very beginning itself, even before birth. The unacceptable crime of female foeticide, being encouraged by the widespread misuse of modern technology and its mindless commercial exploitation must be stopped. This dastardly social phenomenon must be socially boycotted and legally punished. I urge all concerned citizens to come forward to put an end to this misuse of medical technology. The hazardous effect of this practice is already there for us to see in some of our most developed states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi. This is creating a gender imbalance in our population that is harmful to our Nation and society. We must therefore try to restore balance by protecting the life of the girl child from conception, by investing in the nourishment and education of the girl child and in the empowerment of women by taking care of their education and health.

I urge all our chief ministers to pay special attention to the education of the girl child. They must take special care to ensure protection for women against domestic and social violence, including rape, eve teasing and sexual harassment at the place of work. I want the States where the social record is not very encouraging to learn from those where greater effort has been made. The various measures we have so far taken in many of these areas will no doubt go a long way in empowering our women. However, much more needs to be done.

We do believe that equitable representation of women in the highest decision making bodies of our country is also urgently required. Therefore we are making serious efforts to build broad-based consensus on the issue of reserving 33% seats in Parliament and State Legislatures for women. Our experience with such reservation at the panchayat level has been very encouraging, even if not uniformly successful across the country. A new army of a million empowered women have come forward to participate in governance at the community level. The time has come for us to scale this experiment up to the national level and the very centre of our legislative process that is represented by our Parliament. I am confident that we will succeed in this endeavour.

Once again, I express my happiness to be here with all of you today and wish you all success in your efforts to further empower this most vital element of our society. India's quest for freedom and dignity or a life of dignity and self respect for all our citizens can never become a living reality unless our women are equal partners in all processes of development and governance. We are committed to making that happen and I assure you that we will work earnestly to realise this dream which was very dear to the founding fathers of our Republic and it is now our national commitment in the Common Minimum Programme."