Nellore: "Women entrepreneurs will set the balance right in realising an equal society," said Prof. C.R. Visweswara Rao, former vice-chancellor, Vikrama Simhapuri University.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the two-day national conference on "Inclusive Growth Strategies for Women Empowerment in the Indian Context," at the seminar hall of VSU here on Thursday.
The conference organised by the department of social work had participants from different parts of the country. Stressing that "the greatest good is in greatest number," he said, that the demographic dividend of the nation will prove to be the greatest asset for the country. He said that the equal wages for equal work for rural women is still an unrealised dream even though several welfare measures for women have been legally enforced.
Prof. V. Veeraiah, vice-chancellor, said that the economic growth is the only way to gender equality. Indeed some of the fastest growing developing countries show the least signs of progress on basic gender equality outcomes, he observed. He said that the economic growth of a nation appears to be far more positive where it is accompanied by an expansion in women's employment and education.
Inclusive growth can be achieved only through women's participation in political power and decision making. Taking a leaf from Amartya Sen's Welfare Economics, Prof. P.R. Shivasankar, registrar, has underlined the need to enhance human well being flourishing and not focus on growth of national income as a goal. He said that an individual woman's empowerment could trigger the empowerment process at the household. In his keynote address, Prof. A.B.S.V. Ramanaiah of Mysore University termed three important components that form the base for women empowerment worldwide.
The first is the resources which enable the factors for empowerment. The second is the agency, which empowers to formulate choices and to gain autonomy in decision-making. The third is achievements that are identified as the outcomes that women experience as a result of access to resources and agency.
