President Pranab Mukherjee concerned over poor representation of women

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee today expressed concern over "unfortunately poor" representation of women in decision-making structures and called them to play the role of "change agents" in an effective way.

"We need more women in decision-making structures. While 33 per cent reservation for women at the panchayat level has had some success, representation of women at other tiers of the government is unfortunately poor.

"In the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index for 2014, India has been ranked a lowly 114th, below Brazil, Russia and China, and even Cuba, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This position must be changed," he said.

The President said the need of the hour for all stakeholders was to rise to tackle violence against women that takes ugly forms like foeticide, infanticide, molestation, rape, sexual harassment, acid attack and even murder.

"This threat is prevalent everywhere - at home, workplace, educational institutions, streets, parks and in public transport. To tackle violence against women, it is important that cooperation of all stakeholders - the state, the police and other public authorities, non-governmental agencies, social activists and the community - is absolutely necessary.

"A society which cannot respect women, cannot be called a civilized society," he stressed.

Speaking at the occasion, Chief Justice of India H L Dattu touched upon the various issues concerning the fairer sex and said "protecting women from sexual violence is the issue that needs urgent attention".

He also said the real challenge lies in identifying and taking measures to address the bias in our laws, employment conditions and personal laws.

"Equality and security of women is meaningless if we seek to achieve it at the cost of their liberty," he said.