Women and girl child still exploited: Ringu
ITANAGAR, Oct 29: Twenty-two government officials from various departments, along with women-related NGO activists are participating in a three-day training programme on women empowerment which began at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) here on Monday.
In her inaugural address, former chairperson of the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women, Gumri Ringu said the programme is an initiative of the central and state governments to provide equal opportunities to women economically, socially, politically and educationally.
“Despite so many laws enacted for protection of women and girl children, the people’s mindset has not changed and there still exist large-scale exploitation and harassment of women and girl children in the society,” Ringu said.
She lamented that women empowerment initiatives remain in paper only as the women-related laws and guidelines are not properly monitored and executed.
“The real empowerment of women will be realized when 50 percent of India’s female population gets equal opportunity in every sphere of human activities and when political right is given through the enactment of 33 percent reservation policy in Parliament,” Ringu said.
She, however, rued that empowerment of women remains a distant dream because of lack of political will in the country.
ATI Director Pate Marik in his address said, “Inequality in terms of women empowerment starts from home itself in the decision-making process in the male dominated society.”
He said unless the importance of women’s participation in decision-making is not realized, there could not be real women empowerment.
“The women themselves are also not aware of the laws for their wellbeing and protection,” Marik observed, and expressed hope that the programme would benefit the participants.
ATI Assistant Director Nani Khambo also spoke.
