Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that women-led development has been a major priority for the Government of India. In his video message at the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment, he said that when women prosper, the world prospers. Their economic empowerment drives development, and their access to education drives global progress. Their leadership promotes inclusivity, and their voices inspire positive change.
The Prime Minister said that the most effective way to empower women is through a women-led development approach. India is taking steps in this direction. On women’s empowerment, the Prime Minister said that we must work to remove barriers that restrict women’s access to markets and global value chains. At the same time, we need to ensure that the burden of caregiving and domestic work is addressed appropriately.
The Prime Minister expressed happiness that it has been decided to set up a new working group on the empowerment of women under the chairmanship of India in the G20 summit.
Citing President Draupadi Murmu as an inspirational example, the Prime Minister said she comes from a simple tribal background but now leads the world’s largest democracy and works as the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s second-largest defense force.
The Prime Minister put forward the results of the efforts for women’s empowerment in India. He informed that under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, about 70 percent of loans have been sanctioned to women. Similarly, under Stand Up India, 80 percent of the beneficiaries are women who are taking bank loans for greenfield projects.
He pointed out that many of the success stories of our cooperative movement in India are women-driven. One such example is from the dairy sector in the state of Gujarat. In Gujarat, 36 lakh women are associated with the dairy sector. In particular, as far as women-led unicorns in India are concerned, the combined value of such unicorns is more than $40 billion. About 43 percent of STEM (Science, Technology, engineering, and Mathematics) graduates in India are women. About one-fourth of the space scientists in India are women. The talent and hard work of women scientists are behind the success of our flagship programs like Chandrayaan, Gaganyaan, and Mission Mangal.