Educate, enlighten, empower women to become our growth leaders

The Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu today called upon the industry to unlock 'gender dividend' to put India on a rapid growth path while noting that our female labour force is around 20 per cent.

Virtually addressing an event Vande Mataram, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav India @75 of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FICCI FLO) Hyderabad Chapter, the Vice President said " We often gloss over the fact that we have an important demographic dividend we can unlock" and emphasised that women-led industrial workforce can drive growth at a rapid pace.

"We need to draw the best out of this talent pool to power our economy forward. "Women are our growth leaders of the future", he added.

The Vice President also stressed the need to look into issues that hinder women from realising their full potential at workplaces. Observing that the pandemic has further deepened employment inequalities between genders, he advised looking at the issues of 'representation, remuneration and roles' to empower women.

Underscoring the importance of providing quality education to the girl child, Naidu noted that girls in school are performing better than boys, but there is a gap in their enrolment in higher education. He also observed that the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on girl child's education. "We need to correct these disparities in a mission mode", Naidu stressed.

The Vice President further reflected on the importance of empowering women politically, economically and socially. "Politically, we need to introduce adequate reservations for women in state legislatures and the Parliament.

Economically, we have to enable women to start businesses and cooperatives through schemes like Stand Up India. Socially, we need to ensure that women do not face any kind of discrimination and stringent action should be taken against those committing atrocities against women", he advised.

"Educate, Enlighten and Empower"- this should be the mantra for us to let women lead our country to its rightful place, the Vice President noted.

On this occasion, Naidu also lauded women who have been on the frontlines of the battle against Covid-19, doctors, nurses, para-medical staff, sanitary workers, ASHA workers and policewomen, among others.