Can't imprison women in homes if you want economic progress, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed on the importance of women empowerment, saying that if a nation wants to achieve their economic goals then they cannot 'imprison women in their homes'.

The Prime Minister said that he strongly believes in the power of women in society and added that if India expects to meet its economic goals then it can't imprison 50 percent of its population at home. It needs to be a 100 percent partnership between men and women.

"In most societies all over the world, the God's are male, but India is the only country in the world where we have goddesses, be it Durga, Saraswati or Kali. Be it education or health, there are a larger number of women taking things into their stride and have literally taken over this field," Prime Minister Modi said during the question and answer session at the Facebook headquarters here on what are his plans of women empowerment in India.

However, the Prime Minister admitted that over the time, the values in India about women had deteriorated but as far as the government is concerned, it is doing everything possible to change that mindset.

Speaking about the role of women in the electoral process, Prime Minister Modi said that compared to the rest of the world including the developed countries, where its hard for a woman to win the elections, Indian women are at far more ease.

" As far as women empowerment is concerned, I can say that it is not enough that they are simply homemakers and decide the colours of the walls, but they also need to become a major part of the decision making process," he said.

Speaking about his endeavours in the 'Beti Bachao Andolan', the Prime Minister said that as part of his election campaign he had gone in villages from house to house and told them to send their daughters to schools.

"We need to push the campaign of 'Save The Girl Child'. Mindset that people have had for women in the past needs to be changed. As a matter of fact, it already is changing," Prime Minister Modi said.

Following his successful interaction here, he headed to the Googleplex in Mountain View, the home of the search engine giant- Google, where he was given a thorough tour by its Chennai-born CEO Sundar Pichai.