AMRAVATI: India is being wrongly pictured as a country where violence is inflicted upon women as there is “much more” gender discrimination in countries like the US, Union minister Y S Chowdary has said.
“Our country is being pictured as a place where there is violence against women. I feel it is not entirely true. There is violence everywhere. There is much more discrimination in America.. more than India,” he said at the first National Women’s Parliament here on February 11.
Women have always enjoyed tremendous respect in India and that the country has opened up in terms of educating and employing women, he noted.
Chowdary said the fundamental reason for women lagging behind was “attitude and mindset” and people should realize the importance of “interdependency” between male and female. He rued while impetus is being given to women empowerment, the fairer sex was practicing double standards as a “mother wants her son to do better in life first”.
A three-day National Women’s Parliament is being organized here by the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with the theme of ‘Empowering Women – Strengthening Democracy’.
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and P. Ashok Gajapati Raju, AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, Bangladesh Parliament Speaker Shirin Chaudhury, Gandhian Ela Bhatt, actress Manisha Koirala and many other dignitaries had attended the inaugural event on February 10.
The vision of NWP is to enable and encourage social, political and economic empowerment of women in all strata of the society. One of the objectives of NWP is to generate new ideas, theories and ideologies for women empowerment.
