in India women are discriminated against
even before they are born
700 000 girls are killed in the womb
and from there onwards it's an uphill
struggle for girls what kind of in India
and what kind of a world
do we want for ourselves and our
children
dear Tina
my fellow co-hosts
the entire women in the world team
esteemed guest ladies and gentlemen
thank you Tina for that generous
introduction
you are a true icon of women's
empowerment
your work on how women can bring about
transformational change in the world is
truly amazing
the women in the world Summit surely
stands out as a lighthouse for millions
of women across the world
it is indeed a privilege to be here
today on the same platform as some of
the most accomplished women from India
and from around the world
to speak after such wonderful women can
sometimes be overwhelming
but let me try
why do I support women
and what does it really mean to me
well
it's not about me
it's about uplifting millions of women
in this country
Reliance Foundation directly impacts the
lives of more than 2.2 million women in
India
through its initiatives in Education
Health
rural transformation Disaster Response
and sports
why do we do this
is it philanthropy
is it CSR
of course it's all of these
but much more
the reason I do this
is because I go a debt
a debt I will go far and deep to repay
all I'm doing is focusing on how soon
and how when
I can repay this debt
allow me to explain what I mean
I was born in a family of 11 girls and
one boy a joint family
we were proud to grow up in a house that
was free of gender bias
we were fortunate to be groomed I a
self-reliant educated free-willed and
disciplined children
I was interested in dance
so I pursued it and trained in
bharatnatyam
after my graduation I wanted to teach
so I joined the school and started
working as a teacher
when I was getting married
the only precondition I had was that I
would continue working even after
marriage
in my story I had access to
education
Health Care
and the opportunity to work
most importantly
I could make my own choices
for myself
because of an environment and Outlook
that encouraged and enabled me
unfortunately
millions of women don't have excess to
basic things like Health Care Water
Sanitation and education
then there are those who despite having
all these have no access to employment
and above all
they don't have the power
to make their own choices
in India women are discriminated against
even before they are born
700 000 girls are killed in the womb
and from there onwards it's an uphill
struggle for girls
the opportunity funnel just keeps on
getting narrower and narrower for them
over 1 million children below the age of
five are lost each year
of which three hundred thousand die on
the first day of life itself
worst a majority of them are girls
as a mother my myself
I find this very painful to accept
girls are neglected when unwell and not
given priority for medical treatment in
the family as compared to boys
leading to high infant mortality rates
more than 50 percent of girls fail to
enroll to schools
large number of girls drop out of school
at puberty one of the main reasons being
the lack of separate toilets for them
nearly 45 percent of girls in India get
married before the age of 18.
70 percent of women are not part of the
workforce
all these numbers paint a grim picture
we could have been one of these
statistics
this could have been you it could have
been me
yes
my story could easily have been
just like this
but I got lucky
Let Me Explain how
first I got lucky through a lottery
called births
I was born into a family that gave equal
opportunities to girls and boys
then I won a lottery called education
because my family believed in the power
of Education especially for girls
and then I met Mukesh
Mukesh encouraged and supported me to
pursue my passion be it education dance
or Sports
I continued making my own decisions and
my choices even after marriage
but my story could have been very
different
my story could easily have been just
like that of many other women in India
and that is why I owe debt
we all owed it
to our sisters who are not as fortunate
we stand at a very important time in
history
a time when a crucial difference can be
made
in about a decade India will have the
largest number of women in any country
in the world
what kind of in India and what kind of a
world do we want for ourselves and our
children
a world where women lag behind
is not only an unequal world it's an
unjust world it's an unfair world
and we cannot accept a world like that
can the world be different
from what it looks like today
I believe
it's quite possible
India has a rich tradition of worshiping
goddesses
we worship goddess Saraswati for
knowledge goddess Lakshmi for wealth
goddess Durga who destroys all evil
we also have a proud history of women
leaders from all walks of life from
jhansi Ki Rani to Indira Gandhi to
Mother Teresa and many others
these women make us believe in a world
with possibilities
a world where women have equal
opportunities
a world that is better not just for
women but for everyone
according to IMF if the number of women
who join the workforce in India were to
increase the level of men India's GDP
would grow by 27 percent
it is clear
empowered Indian women means a stronger
and a better India
my work in India's poorest villages with
women have shown me that we can change
the story of Indian women
take vajabin
is from one of the poorest villages in
Gujarat
on a first visit to that Village
we were struck
by the extreme misery
Farm slave Barren people and children
were malnourished even a simple mean was
beyond their means
then I met what happened
her father was bedridden
and she was a single mother of three
young children
for them
life was a real struggle
he had there was something different
about her in her eyes was a
determination to fight her circumstances
our foundation wanted to help
and our philosophy is to enable people
to help themselves
so we helped and assisted vajabin to set
up a nutrition Garden
within three months the garden was
producing more than 200 kilograms of
vegetables
a month
she was now self-reliant
but she didn't stop there
what I've been motivated other women
from her Village to set up similar
Gardens and help them also to earn an
income out of it
in a male dominated Community she
rallied other women around her to
transform her own village
soon what happened was elected as a
president of the village Farmers
Association
today
thanks to vachabe there are 44 nutrition
Gardens in netra
no child goes to bed hungry or is
malnourished
every child goes to an angle body for
their well-being and education
I would like to believe there's a vajabe
in every village in India we need to
find them and Empower them
they will do the rest
another example that comes to my mind is
prakash Kaur from Jalandhar
she comes from the state which has the
highest rates of female infanticide in
India
unwanted girls are thrown into garbage
towns
abandoned on railway tracks or river
banks
prakash ji started picking up these
girls
and gave them a home and became their
mother
today she runs a unique home where she's
a mother to 70 abandoned girls
prakash Ji gave these little girls a new
life
with their own parents wished them
deaths
when I met her at Unique Home what
really touched my heart
was a compassion when she told me
I have not adopted these girls
they are my real daughters
some of these girls are well educated
teenagers today
and one of them is even studying to be a
doctor
true to her name prakash is spreading
light and Hope
these stories tell us that women can
make a huge difference
however we need millions of such stories
to achieve this we need the right
mindset and the right tool set as a
society and as a community
when I see people in this room
and the commitment to women's
empowerment I know the future looks
bright
when I look at prakash Kaur and vajabe
and hundreds of courageous women like
them
I know there's hope
ultimately supporting women is all about
repaying the debt I owe to my sisters
it's all about ensuring that vajabe and
prakash Kaur are not exceptions but they
become the norm
supporting women is neither CSR
or philanthropy
it is our moral responsibility
to support an idea an idea of a better
world
a world with equal opportunities
a world where women Inspire the whole of
humanity
a world where women can make their own
choices
and a world where India is at the
Forefront of that change
let us together achieve the dream of
that beautiful world
it's time for action
together
let's make that dream real
thank you
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