SPEECH BY HER EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SHRIMATI PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE NEW SCHEME "MUKHYA MANTRI KANYA VIVAH YOJNA"

Patna, 16 February 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am particularly happy to participate in the inauguration of the new scheme called "Mukhya Mantri Kanya Vivah Yojna". I would like to congratulate the Chief Minister for having taken this positive step in the direction of empowerment of women.

The scheme designed to provide economic support for marriages of girls belonging to poor families, will at the same time be a catalyst against social evils like child marriage and dowry. Our national efforts to have marriages registered will be facilitated by this scheme because financial assistance would be made available only when a marriage is registered. The scheme will even be helpful in preventing domestic violence. I believe that the social change we seek to bring about through legislative measures will remain incomplete unless it is facilitated by an enabling environment. We would need to make sustained efforts for achieving gender equality.

As we look back at ancient times, we find that in India there were eminent women philosophers like Gargi and Maitreyi who were given as much respect as men and participated in discourses and discussions at par with men. In our national freedom movement, the contribution of women has been no less than that of men. Women responded to the call of Mahatma Gandhi to join the freedom struggle, at a time when only 2 percent of women were educated. This should give an idea as to how difficult it would have been for women to come out of their homes but yet they did. After Independence, women as members of the Constituent Assembly participated in the task of drafting a constitution for free India. It is a matter of pride that as per the proposal of Dr. Baba Sahib Ambedkar, the Constitution from its very inception has given the right to vote to women, making India one of the very few countries to have done so.

It is unfortunate that even today social evils like dowry, child marriages, female foeticide, female infanticide and addiction continue to exist in our society. They need to be dealt with and eradicated. I am confident that all of us can collectively do so. Indian society has a tradition of being progressive and forward-looking when dealing with societal practices that require modification or elimination. We have always shown the courage and wisdom to do so. In the 19th century, reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Swami Dayanand Saraswati, all took upon themselves to fight social evils. I have no doubt that in our country there exists a desire to fight discrimination and violence against women and we need to converge our efforts and channelise our energies to bring about the desired results by creating awareness in the society.

Child marriage is one of the biggest injustices committed against a child. A young child who is still at the initial stage of life and yet to understand the world around, is pushed into a matrimonial alliance. Child marriage not only adversely affects the girl child but also has numerous other fall-outs. I have seen cases of child marriage where the girl child is a mother when she is barely 13 or 14. Thereafter, she becomes a child-producing machine. This tells on her health and she is unable to give the nutrition and care levels required for her children. A young girl when she should have been studying, learning and acquiring skills for earning a livelihood is tasked with looking after a new generation. The unfairness of the situation is apparent. In the process of child marriage, we have deprived the young girl to be a educated and a capable citizen and also deprived a new generation of children from getting proper care by a well informed and healthy mother. The potential loss to society, both socially and economically, will be hard to quantify but it would be enormous.

Our attitudes towards women and girl child need to change. Even though significant steps have been taken for women's empowerment in the last two decades much work remains to be done. The pillars of women empowerment essentially consists of literacy, education, better health facilities and nutrition for the mother and child, political representation and financial security including opportunities for self-employment options to become self-reliant. All this is dependent on making women aware about their rights, making them feel proud of being women, creating a conducive atmosphere and giving them opportunities to live the life of dignity. It is often being seen that women are given jobs with lesser wages and that they are not given the same opportunity as men for advancement. Whenever, Indian women have been given a conducive environment and appropriate facilities they have been successful and have become engineers, doctors, administrators, industrialists, members of the police force and Armed Forces and even astronauts.

Women's education and empowerment play an important role in development and poverty eradication. State Governments should implement schemes which gives incentive for the education of the girl child. This would also help in reducing the number of drop-out cases from schools. To reduce domestic violence and social discrimination, an appropriate social and legal environment needs to be put in place for the implementation of which all sections of society - social organizations, media and the government should work together collectively. Our policies and programmes should be designed with a focus on women's needs and concerns. Women should be supported to set up their own business with the support of Self Help Groups and the availability of credit facilities. These steps will help women achieve economic independence and contribute to their empowerment. It should be our objective to give women opportunities to work, and to create a social environment in which women can live with respect and dignity and can play a role in nation-building.

Our full potential as a nation will only be realized when women, who constitute about half of our population, can fully realize their potential. As long as that does not happen, half the talent, half the progress, half the development, would be lost. We as a nation cannot afford to do that. For a chariot to move forward both wheels have to be strong and if one is weak it cannot move forward. So to move the chariot of our country forward both the wheels - men and women have to be strong and to move ahead jointly. To express the aspirations of Indian women, I will quote a stanza:

Thank You.