unicefindia

Hi, Louis-Georges here. Just imagine how India will be when all children, boys and girls, will have achieved 12 years of good quality education. There is no secret. In all the countries where this has happened, it has empowered women and transformed societies. Some examples are Thailand, South Korea and Japan. This is one area where India cannot afford to fail.

Great question Rajkumar2013. I (Chhavi) personally feel the term empowerment itself is not properly defined, nor understood, especially in the context of women and even panchayats. By giving someone a designation or a chair, the person is not necessarily empowered. We need more focus on training the elected representatives all across.

Hey Pratibha, this is Louis-Georges. Building on what Chhavi responded to Anand, lack of sanitation has a great impact on women's health on daily basis because they cannot relieve themselves before dark. It is also clear that it aggravates violence against women and girls who are forced to go out into the darkness and become easy targets against sexual assault.

Pratibha, you are right, both of us think that International Women's Day offers an opportunity, on one hand, to really push for the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (total sanitation campaign) because unfortunately there are still more than 600 million people who are defecating in the open. Most importantly, this is an occasion to join hands and call for mindset change on how women are perceived as commodities that can be disposed off (assaulted, raped, killed).

Thanks for this question. This is Chhavi. I have been going to the village since I was a child and spent my vacation living there. In the village I don't have a problem, since it was the villagers' idea to make me a sarpanch, and they see me as the daughter of the village which in fact works to my advantage. The main difference between the corporate world and the rural is the fact that one is organized, while the other one is not. However, the same management skills can be used to develop rural areas, which is what I am trying to do in my village. There is huge potential in the rural sector and I wish more people would realize this and join in.