Pranab Mukherjee Calls For Empowerment Of Women

President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Bansilal Malani College of Nursing established by the Mahila Dakshata Samiti in Hyderabad on December 24, and called for empowerment of women in the society as well as in the workspace.

Speaking on the occasion, the President expressed concerns over deficiencies in the health infrastructure of the nation and also the severe dearth of female employees. He said that the only long lasting solution was to create cooperative structures comprising of State and private stake holders as well as the civil society. In fact, the developmental goals of health, education, livelihood and others cannot be achieved by the government alone, he said and added that such cooperative structures were relevant for all of them.

The President said that there was a severe shortage of about 2.4 million female nurses in the country and a decrease in the number of nurses from about 1.65 million in 2009, to about 1.56 million in 2015. This indicated a worrisome trend, he lamented.

At the same time, India's infrastructure comprised of just 1.53 lakh sub-centres, 85,000 PHCs and about 5,000 community health centres in a nation of 130 crore people living in more than 5,000 towns and 6.4 lakh villages, Mr. Mukherjee said. It was essential to look for models where in all the stake holders participated and not just the government.

The President praised the leading role played by the Mahila Dakshata Samiti in women's empowerment and recalled the contributions of the Samiti's founding members such as Suman Krishankant, professor Pramila Dandavate and Governor of Goa Mridula Sinha.

He said that true empowerment of women would be possible only through education, encouragement of economic self-dependence and provision of opportunities enabling the unfolding of one's full potential.

He said that it was unfortunate that today, when the average literacy rate in India was 74%, women's literacy was less than 65. He said that a society which did not empower its women would end up a loser, and called for renewed efforts to empower women.