SPEECH BY HER EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SHRIMATI PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, AT THE MEETING WITH THE LADIES' CIRCLE INTERNATIONAL

Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, 21st August 2009

I am very happy to see you all at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the building which has been a witness to the process of the transfer of power from British India to free India. It is a symbol of our freedom, our democracy and also a symbol of our Republic. I am happy to see that Rashtrapati Bhavan is becoming more and more accessible to citizens, including through the opening of the Nature Trail and the ceremony of the Change of Guard, to the public.

I am glad to meet your group consisting of young and dynamic women from different parts of the globe who are members of the Ladies' Circle International, a global association of women involved in social welfare activities.

Women have great potential to bring about change in society. It is also true that women are still confronted with many challenges relating to their own development and empowerment. Hence, women organizations are important platforms for building a collective voice for taking action to address issues relating to them as well as to society. This collective strength of women is important. I remember a poem which I used to read in school. It is -

If all the trees were one tree, what a great tree it would be;
If all rivers were one river, what a great river it would be;
and I always feel If all the women in the world speak in one voice, what a great voice it will be to bring peace, prosperity and happiness in the world.

So, this is the common voice of women, which can bring change not only in one country, but in many countries. I realized this when I attended the World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 in which I had the privilege to participate as a member of the Indian delegation. The Beijing Declaration that was adopted put together a comprehensive agenda for promoting the participation of women in all fields and for adopting gender sensitive policies and programmes. Since then, there have been some achievements, but it cannot be said that the objectives and targets have been fully met.

Indian women participated in the independence movement. They got voting rights from the very beginning of the history of free India along with their male counterparts, when the Constitution was adopted. This was not the case in many countries where women had to strive to get voting rights. Today, in India, women are excelling in various fields, whether in politics, administration, science, arts and businesses. As India's first woman President, I am happy that we have a woman as the Speaker of the Lower House - the House of People. Also at the grass roots level in our elected bodies in villages and towns there are 1.2 million elected women representatives which is above 33 percent. But at the same time, the literacy levels of women is lower than men, they have higher incidence of malnutrition and face societal disadvantages.

To bring about gender equality we need to focus on educating and empowering women. I would encourage organizations like yours whose members are young and educated women, to concentrate your energies on this area. I am aware that you are also doing work in these areas but since the task is enormous, greater efforts would need to be put in. I believe that awareness is important for empowerment. It is only when information is disseminated that the people are made aware of issues, policies and schemes so that they can avail of opportunities. Awareness is of two kinds. One is awareness among women about their own inherent potential strength and the need to exert, so as to confidently fight against the odds confronting them. Second, is awareness among men and women that there is no conflict of interest between them, but that they have a complementary and supplementary role to play in building their future together and, therefore, to work jointly to help each other to lead a better life.

We have a forward looking agenda for strengthening the processes that promote economic and social development of women. The National Mission on the socio-economic Empowerment of Women is being established for co-coordinated implementation of women centric and women related programmes and schemes. This will be in addition to the National Commission for Women, which focuses on recommending policy and legislative measures for addressing matters affecting women.

Development is a collective venture. Therefore, Governments, Civil Societies and Local Communities would have to work together. Self Help Groups in India numbering about 2.7 million are an expression of women to better their lives through pooling their skills and resources, however meager, to undertake income generating activities. You should interact with women Self Help Groups to understand the areas in which they can be supported. To get better results, you should also try to identify geographical areas and specific activities to be undertaken. Organizations, like yours, have an important role to play and I would encourage you to work with commitment. Your activities should be motivated by the desire to improve the lives of those who are less advantaged.

If we concentrate on empowering women through gender equality, we will actually be promoting the cause of democracy, mitigating poverty, improving general health of women and promoting development to accord the right meaning to the status of women in the twenty first century.

I wish you good luck.

Thank you.