PM says India on the path of ‘development led by women’
MANN KI BAAT Modi said the dream of New India is one in which women are equal partners in development process
Ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday pitched for “women-led development”, adding his government wants to ensure participation of women in every field.
“Today, the country is moving forward from the path of women development to women-led development. Today, it is our duty to ensure the participation of women in every field of life, be it social or economic, it is our fundamental duty,” Modi said in his radio address Mann Ki Baat.
The PM said that all over the world, programmes are held to mark the International Women’s Day and in India, too, women are felicitated with awards for achieving exemplary tasks in various sectors. He added that even “identities of a son” have been credited to the mother like “Yashoda-Nandan, KaushalyaNandan, Gandhari-Putra”.
“Toda,y our woman power has shown inner fortitude and selfconfidence, has made herself selfreliant. Not only has she advanced herself but has carried forward the country and society to newer heights,” Modi said.
Modi’s push for women empowerment has a strong political outlook to define schemes and policies exclusively for women. From the Ujjwala scheme under which poor women get free LPG connection to the bill criminalising instant triple talaq, Modi’s efforts have widely been seen as attempts to carve out a “womencentric” vote bank that could well benefit the BJP in the upcoming assembly and general elections.
In his address, he said the dream of ‘New India’ is one “where women are strong and empowered and are equal partners in the development of the country”.
The PM added that recently, someone had suggested to him that on March 8, the Centre could felicitate women who are over 100 years old. “Why cannot we felicitate mothers and sisters who have completed 100 years in every Indian village or city? Can a program of paying respect for such centenarians be held and cannot we reflect upon a life lived long?” he said.
He also hailed efforts of a group of women from Jharkhand who organised a hygiene campaign and constructed 1.70 lakh toilets in just 20 days. Modi said they showed that women power was an integral component of the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.
USE AI TO MAKE LIVES OF ‘DIVYANGS’ SIMPLER
In his address, Modi also said that machines were getting smarter through self learning and urged researchers to make use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make the lives of the “divyangs” (differently abled), farmers and the needy more simpler.
He said through AI, “we can be alerted about natural calamities”. “Can we help the farmers know about their crops return?”
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