Proactive society needed for a safe environment for women: Sonia Gandhi

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today expressed her concern over violence against women, and made a strong pitch for a proactive society to create a safe environment for the feminine gender.

"We have been shocked by the violence that girls and women encounter on the street and even in their homes. Of course, it is not universal, but it is there widespreadIt pains me that as a society, we have failed to counter it and create a safe environment where girls and women can live and flourish without being constantly force to live in the fear of abuse and molestation," said Gandhi.

"While the government, Parliament and institutions like the police have to discharge their role, society at large also needed to change its mindset. We must all become all the more proactive. There can be no better places for this other than our families, schools and universities," she added.

Gandhi said Jamia has a long standing commitment to the education of women and Muslim women in particular.

"Jamia was born in the crucible of the national movement and has kept up its great heritage of nationalism and staunch secularism that makes us all proud. No wonder that Jawaharlal Nehru once described this university as the lusty child of the national movement," she said.

The UPA chairperson, who laid the foundation stone for a girls hostel on the Jamia Milia Islamia University campus here, also expressed her delight over the varsity's decision to name a ground in the university after former cricketer late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.