Rebecca Tavares, the United Nation’s Women’s Representative for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, on Sunday told students at a youth conclave that they will soon become world leaders and that they will need to work towards building a safer and more sustainable world that is more gender-just as India has a sizeable number of the world’s youth.
Role models
“Whether you work for the government, the private sector, as an activist, a lawyer or a journalist, young women and men here today will become leadership models for girls and boys around the world,” she said.
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Addressing the men specifically, she said they will need to work towards treating women with respect and as equals so that they become role models for the rest of their lives.
Ms. Tavares was speaking at the Youth Speak Forum, organised by AIESEC in IIT-Delhi, at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.
The forum brings together both young and senior leaders for conversation around pressing global, national and local issues.
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Comfort zone
Ms. Tavares spoke about sustainable development goals of the UN and listed the progress the UN has made so far in gender equality. She urged the young audience to step out of their comfort zones and have face-to-face conversations with as many people as they can to ensure a more gender-just society.