Congress Party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha Member Ms. Renuka Choudhary said that women are not just homemakers they are nation builders because they raise the children, the future of India. They are the care givers for the older lot and path breakers for the younger lot, she said. Ms. Renuka was speaking at a session on Women’s empowerment organized as part of the Rotary’s second largest event in the entire world, the three-day Rotary South Asia Summit 2013 being held in Hyderabad at Novotel HICC & HITEX today. The event was participated by more than 5000 people from 15 countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and India are participating in the meet. It is after nearly 30 years, that a Rotary Meet of this magnitude was held in India at Hyderabad.
Addressing the gather Ms. Renuka Chowdhary said that for transformation to happen the game changers have to be men and not women. As men came out against the social evil ‘Sati’, so also men should come forward. She listed out various governments initiatives viz. Right to Education, Women’s Bank, etc. Andhra Pradesh has outstanding record for micro-credit for women, she pointed out. Microfinance has given access of credit to women and enhanced their lives. They now have better choices, better nutrition, has given her a say in the decisions on family matters, she added.
Earlier Bangladesh’s Ms. Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Former advisor to Government and Chairman, Adcom Ltd., a leading Advertising & Communication firm also spoke on the subject in context of Bangladesh. She said that in her country with a population of 160 million there 50% men and 50% women and one cannot leave 50% of the population lagging behind for progress. We definitely have to empower them. Bangladesh is going through considerable changes and Bangladeshi women have come a long way in establishing their rights. With emphasis on educating and empowering women, more than 75% of women in the age group of 11-15 years of age are attending school now, she said. Readymade garment sectors also contributed significantly to women empowerment. Women workers are the lifeline of the readymade garment sector. For the period of 2011-12 out of the total exports, the readymade garments sector constituted 78 percent, she informed. She said that Bangladesh government introduced jobs reserved for women only. Today women are challenging social and religious prejudices and are now working in various professions such as Police Department, etc. Bangladesh became the first Muslim-majority nation to sent unit of female police officers for UN Peacekeeping mission.
Ms. Geeteara listed out that in Bangladesh, the prime minister, opposition leader, deputy leader of the house, foreign minister, agriculture minister, telecom minister and women affairs minister are all women. She added that Bangladesh has a 45 seats reserved for women out of 345. And in the 2010 upazila (subdistrit) elections out of 500 positions of vice chairpersons 481 elected were women. Out of 95 Supreme court judges seven were women. In the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon Bangladesh is a ‘rising star’ in women’s empowerment, she said. And we will continue our march forward towards an even brighter future, she said amidst excited clapping from the audience.
Rotary International Director Elect P.T. Prabhakar who chaired the session on Women’s empowerment in his address informed that Ms. Anne L. Matthews has been appointed by Rotary International President-elect Ron Burton to serve as the Vice President of Rotary International for the year 2013-14. She is the first woman elected to serve as Vice President of Rotary International, he said.
Earlier in the day Rotary International President Nominee Gary CK Huang spoke about Membership growth in Rotary. Orissa-based sand animation group SMS presented ‘Peace through art’ performance. The depicted various message through sand art such as Save Environment, Save the Girl Child, Save Water, etc.
Junk band ‘Dharavi Rocks’ consisting of 14 kids (including two girls) in the age group of 8-16 years from the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai led by their Music Teacher Abhijit Jejurikar gave an energizing performance. The energy of rhythmic beats filled the hall and won much appreciation from the audience. Speaking on the sidelines, Mr. Abhijit Jejurikar said that all the members are underprivileged children, mainly ragpickers who have no access to most of life’s comforts. The band creates junk percussion music using items such as tin cans, glass bottles, plastic bowls, drum barrels, paint buckets, metal lids, sticks etc. informed Abhijit, who volunteers as their music teacher and is a Journalist with a media company.
With its performances the band wants the spread the message of recycle, reuse and respect informs Mr. Vinod Shetty, Director, Acorn Foundation. Dharavi Rocks is a joint educational project between blueFROG and Acorn Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare of slum children and waste collectors/ragpickers. Dharavi is said to be Asia’s largest slum is a hub of recycling. The main aim of ours is to get the children off the streets said Mr. Vinod Shetty. Our volunteers teach children many subjects such as maths, science, computers, music, etc. The kids have trained with volunteers / bands in various genres such as Hip Hop, Jazz, etc. Some of the workshops organized for the kids were by Kwak, a French band; Under Kontrol, Beat Boxers; Soweto Kinch, a British rapper, etc. which have been possible through blueFROG, he added. Dharavi Rocks band is to soon bring out a CD, Shetty said.
Apart from the exchange of experiences, thoughts and ideas among the speakers, panelists and experts on the core focus areas of the summit i.e. Education, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation and Women's Empowerment. The three-day summit was interspersed with interesting entertainment programs by various artists such as Symphony by Maestro Bikram Ghosh; Musical evening by Dhwani; Inspirational songs by BLACK, a visually challenged musical orchestra; Musical soiree by Shaan; etc.
Rotary Dignitaries who participated in the concluding session include Gary CK Huang, President Nominee Rotary International; Wilf Wilkinson, Trust Chair Rotary International; Rotary International Past PresidentKalyan Banerjee; Summit Co-Convener Rotarian Yash Pal Das, Director, Rotary International; P.T. Prabhakar, Incoming Director, Rotary International, Kamal Sangvi, Chairman and Ravi Vadlamani, Joint Chairman and others.
In a unique gesture instead of giving mementoes to the Rotary Dignitaries, VIPs, etc. who had come to attend, Rotary pledged to donate school benches, sewing machines, etc. and offering free heart surgeries on their behalf to benefit the society. All the incoming Rotary District Governors together pledged to adopt 100 schools all over South Asia and make them model schools. Rotary is to also construct ten thousand toilets in rural areas and an additional 1000 free heart surgeries to the 1000 surgeries that they support. 10 new eye hospitals and 50 vocational centres in the coming year announced Shekhar Mehta, Convenor of the Summit.
The day concluded with performance by Indian pop, Jazz and Playback singer Usha Uthup who enthralled the gathering singing her popular songs in various languages such as Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Punjabi, etc. Some of the songs she belted out include Sara jahan aha nache nache, Dama dam mast kalandar, Lal meri pat Rakhyo sada jhoolay lalan, Chinta ta chita chita, etc.
Addressing the gather Ms. Renuka Chowdhary said that for transformation to happen the game changers have to be men and not women. As men came out against the social evil ‘Sati’, so also men should come forward. She listed out various governments initiatives viz. Right to Education, Women’s Bank, etc. Andhra Pradesh has outstanding record for micro-credit for women, she pointed out. Microfinance has given access of credit to women and enhanced their lives. They now have better choices, better nutrition, has given her a say in the decisions on family matters, she added.
Earlier Bangladesh’s Ms. Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, Former advisor to Government and Chairman, Adcom Ltd., a leading Advertising & Communication firm also spoke on the subject in context of Bangladesh. She said that in her country with a population of 160 million there 50% men and 50% women and one cannot leave 50% of the population lagging behind for progress. We definitely have to empower them. Bangladesh is going through considerable changes and Bangladeshi women have come a long way in establishing their rights. With emphasis on educating and empowering women, more than 75% of women in the age group of 11-15 years of age are attending school now, she said. Readymade garment sectors also contributed significantly to women empowerment. Women workers are the lifeline of the readymade garment sector. For the period of 2011-12 out of the total exports, the readymade garments sector constituted 78 percent, she informed. She said that Bangladesh government introduced jobs reserved for women only. Today women are challenging social and religious prejudices and are now working in various professions such as Police Department, etc. Bangladesh became the first Muslim-majority nation to sent unit of female police officers for UN Peacekeeping mission.
Ms. Geeteara listed out that in Bangladesh, the prime minister, opposition leader, deputy leader of the house, foreign minister, agriculture minister, telecom minister and women affairs minister are all women. She added that Bangladesh has a 45 seats reserved for women out of 345. And in the 2010 upazila (subdistrit) elections out of 500 positions of vice chairpersons 481 elected were women. Out of 95 Supreme court judges seven were women. In the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon Bangladesh is a ‘rising star’ in women’s empowerment, she said. And we will continue our march forward towards an even brighter future, she said amidst excited clapping from the audience.
Rotary International Director Elect P.T. Prabhakar who chaired the session on Women’s empowerment in his address informed that Ms. Anne L. Matthews has been appointed by Rotary International President-elect Ron Burton to serve as the Vice President of Rotary International for the year 2013-14. She is the first woman elected to serve as Vice President of Rotary International, he said.
Earlier in the day Rotary International President Nominee Gary CK Huang spoke about Membership growth in Rotary. Orissa-based sand animation group SMS presented ‘Peace through art’ performance. The depicted various message through sand art such as Save Environment, Save the Girl Child, Save Water, etc.
Junk band ‘Dharavi Rocks’ consisting of 14 kids (including two girls) in the age group of 8-16 years from the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai led by their Music Teacher Abhijit Jejurikar gave an energizing performance. The energy of rhythmic beats filled the hall and won much appreciation from the audience. Speaking on the sidelines, Mr. Abhijit Jejurikar said that all the members are underprivileged children, mainly ragpickers who have no access to most of life’s comforts. The band creates junk percussion music using items such as tin cans, glass bottles, plastic bowls, drum barrels, paint buckets, metal lids, sticks etc. informed Abhijit, who volunteers as their music teacher and is a Journalist with a media company.
With its performances the band wants the spread the message of recycle, reuse and respect informs Mr. Vinod Shetty, Director, Acorn Foundation. Dharavi Rocks is a joint educational project between blueFROG and Acorn Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare of slum children and waste collectors/ragpickers. Dharavi is said to be Asia’s largest slum is a hub of recycling. The main aim of ours is to get the children off the streets said Mr. Vinod Shetty. Our volunteers teach children many subjects such as maths, science, computers, music, etc. The kids have trained with volunteers / bands in various genres such as Hip Hop, Jazz, etc. Some of the workshops organized for the kids were by Kwak, a French band; Under Kontrol, Beat Boxers; Soweto Kinch, a British rapper, etc. which have been possible through blueFROG, he added. Dharavi Rocks band is to soon bring out a CD, Shetty said.
Apart from the exchange of experiences, thoughts and ideas among the speakers, panelists and experts on the core focus areas of the summit i.e. Education, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation and Women's Empowerment. The three-day summit was interspersed with interesting entertainment programs by various artists such as Symphony by Maestro Bikram Ghosh; Musical evening by Dhwani; Inspirational songs by BLACK, a visually challenged musical orchestra; Musical soiree by Shaan; etc.
Rotary Dignitaries who participated in the concluding session include Gary CK Huang, President Nominee Rotary International; Wilf Wilkinson, Trust Chair Rotary International; Rotary International Past PresidentKalyan Banerjee; Summit Co-Convener Rotarian Yash Pal Das, Director, Rotary International; P.T. Prabhakar, Incoming Director, Rotary International, Kamal Sangvi, Chairman and Ravi Vadlamani, Joint Chairman and others.
In a unique gesture instead of giving mementoes to the Rotary Dignitaries, VIPs, etc. who had come to attend, Rotary pledged to donate school benches, sewing machines, etc. and offering free heart surgeries on their behalf to benefit the society. All the incoming Rotary District Governors together pledged to adopt 100 schools all over South Asia and make them model schools. Rotary is to also construct ten thousand toilets in rural areas and an additional 1000 free heart surgeries to the 1000 surgeries that they support. 10 new eye hospitals and 50 vocational centres in the coming year announced Shekhar Mehta, Convenor of the Summit.
The day concluded with performance by Indian pop, Jazz and Playback singer Usha Uthup who enthralled the gathering singing her popular songs in various languages such as Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Punjabi, etc. Some of the songs she belted out include Sara jahan aha nache nache, Dama dam mast kalandar, Lal meri pat Rakhyo sada jhoolay lalan, Chinta ta chita chita, etc.
