PANJIM: The National Women’s Parliament (NWP) was inaugurated on Monday at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Taleigao with national delegates and State leaders focusing on the need for women empowerment and the involvement of women in policy making as well as in the top decision making of various other sectors.
The two-day event was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in the presence of Union Minister of State (MoS) for Tourism, Shripad Naik, Speaker, Rajesh Patnekar, Former Power Minister, Nirmala Sawant, Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao, Chief Secretary Parimal Rai and the convenor of NVP Rahul Karad.
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Speaker Rajesh Patnekar was of the opinion that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way political entities function and in society too where the aim should be on including women and their ideas and making sure their views get due representation. He also called on legislators to come out with better laws that can facilitate the change the public have been demanding in the interest of women and their rights.
While MLAs of the State also spoke on the occasion, BJP Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha highlighted the evolution of women from how they were perceived in the past and how they now hold positions of power in every sphere.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant listed out the numerous schemes and steps taken by his government to help the women of the State, empower them and provide them with better welfare. He also called on Goan women and youngsters in the audience to interact with the national women leaders who had come down for NVM as speakers or participants and to learn about the trends and developments taking place on a national stage. MoS Shripad Naik hailed the efforts of the central government and praised platforms like NVM for holding such important dialogues.
Day 1 of the NVM had various sessions such as the socio-political challenges in women empowerment, women’s status and decision making power and the status of women in the corporate sector, be it in symbolism and substance.
Top luminaries and national icons were amongst the speakers at NVM on the first days. The famous Laxmi Agarwal, campaigner of ‘Stop Acid Attacks Mission’ got a resounding response at NVM. Business leaders like Arundhati Bhattacharya, former chairperson of State Bank of India will be amongst those addressing the audience on Tuesday.
