Amitabh Bachchan lauds efforts to empower women

Impressed by the initiatives to empower women population in India, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan lauded the efforts made by people and the government for ensuring safety and respect for women.

Speaking at 'Lavasa Women's Drive 2014' awards ceremony in Mumbai on Tuesday, Bachchan appreciated the endeavour taken by them for supporting the cause of cancer prevention through early detection among women in India.

Hundreds of women drove from Mumbai and Pune to picturesque hill city of Lavasa as part of the annual Lavasa Women's Drive in February to set a Guinness World Record for maximum number of women in any motor sports event.

Bachchan was present at the event to felicitate the winners and said post Delhi gang rape case in December 2012, everyone in the country came forward to express their voice and make the government sit and notice to make the changes with respect to women safety in the country.

"The people of the nation just got together without any kind of leverage from any kind of political party, any kind of ideology, came forward and expressed their voice and the best part was that the voice was heard by the system, was heard by the government and the government had to make changes, had to make laws to protect our women," said Bachchan.

Lavasa Women's Drive gives an ode to every woman, making her feel special and the event was an opportunity for one to do their bit to support the cause of cancer.

The 71-year-old actor also pointed out at the increase in number of women participation in the Indian film industry.

"And if you go to visit our sets, as I have said many times before, you will find almost 60 to 70 percent of people working on film crews are all women. And they do all and every kind of job, right from the DOP (Director of Photography) to assistants, to directors, to production, all kind of jobs in the past that were handled by men are now handled by women and I am proud of that," added Bachchan.

Bollywood actor Jackky Bhagnani and actress Neha Sharma also attended the event.