Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has earnestly appealed to all the political parties to agree upon the passage of Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.
The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, (popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill) is a lapsed bill in the Parliament which proposed an amendment in the Constitution to reserve 33% of all seats in Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women.
He underlined that Women’s reservation in Panchayats and Municipalities has proved out to be successful.
Yesterday at the Women Entrepreneurship Platform Conclave, Naidu presented Women Transforming India Awards 2018.
He addressed the conclave by saying, “The contribution of Indian women to GDP, currently at 17 percent, was well below the global average of 37 percent.”
Naidu expressed his concern over the unemployment prevailing among Indian women, “Only 27 percent of women in India were gainfully employed. These are the numbers that pose a challenge to the lawmakers and lawmakers of this country.”
He lauded NITI Aayog over its efforts towards empowering women, “… and this is where NITI Aayog’s efforts in empowering women entrepreneurs through WEP is especially commendable.”
Pinning his hopes on the private sector to end discrimination against women, he added, “Discrimination against women has to end in terms of differential wages or skewed opportunities for career advancement. The private sector can play a major role in ending discrimination by being equal opportunity employers and it is time that the ‘glass ceiling’ is shattered.”
Highlighting the dire need of gender equality he said, “Women have to be given a level playing field.”
The conclave was organized by the NITI Aayog, Women Empowerment Principles(WEP) and United Nations(UN) in India.
Naidu presented Women Transforming India Awards 2018 to 13 meritorious women who have excelled in various fields from different parts of the country.
The other famous public figures present at the occasion were the CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant, the UN Resident Coordinator in India Yuri Afanasiev and the Tennis star Sania Mirza.