Women constitute nearly 50 per cent of the total population but it is unfortunate that they are not being involved in the development process, according to the speakers at a meeting organised to launch the T. Subbarami Reddy Mahila Welfare Forum at the Port Kalavani auditorium Stadium here on Saturday. They felt that any nation can progress only when women are given their due place in society.
Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences S. Jaipal Reddy, who launched the forum, lauded the initiative of the Rajya Sabha Member. He recalled his association with Mr. Subbarami Reddy since their college days at the Nizam College in 1958 and lauded his services towards the cause of the poor and needy sections of society.
Mr. Jaipal Reddy said that women, even in advanced nations like England and the US, had got voting rights as late as in the 1930s. Due to the efforts of our national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar, Indian women had obtained voting in just 20 years after England and the US. The efforts of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had led to allocation of 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was strongly in favour of 50 per cent reservation for women in elected bodies.
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He said it was unfortunate that women not only in India but also in the developed countries were being looked down upon as having lesser IQ than their male counterparts. He felt that unless justice was done to women, no nation could progress.
Senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi expressed satisfaction on seeing a large number of women among the audience and felt that it was an indication of women empowerment. Commending women in the State, Ms. Bahuguna said that women all over the country were looking towards women in Andhra Pradesh as a ‘repository of power’. She said that it was the Congress Government which gave women a right to share in ancestral property. Mr. Subbarami Reddy spoke of his efforts for the development of Visakhapatnam during the last three decades. He said that a review meet would be held in July on the proposal for construction of a cancer hospital in Visakhapatnam and the foundation stone for the hospital would be laid in four months.
Rajya Sabha Member V. Hanumantha Rao, AP Mahila Congress president Ganga Bhavani, Minister P. Balaraju, Government Whip Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao, MLC and former Minister Shabbir Ali, MLC G. Srinivasula Naidu, MLAs U.V. Ramanamurthy Raju, Malla Vijay Prasad, Ch. Venkataramaiah and Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, former MLA S.A. Rehaman, former Mayor P. Janardhan Rao, City Mahila Congress president Pedada Ramani Kumari, Women Welfare Forum president M. Valli Ramgopal and SC,ST,Christian Welfare Forum president K. Vengala Rao were among those who attended.
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