Setting up of 'Women's Entrepreneurship Council' to be posed for Cabinet approval soon: Maneka Gandhi

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has proposed the setting up of a Women's Entrepreneurship Council for taking up with the government the problems faced by businesswomen.

The council modeled on the lines of chambers of commerce, will seek to resolve issues through policy changes.

A note to this effect will be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon, said Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development.

Inaugurating 'Wellness Rules!' - Proactive Well-Being Conclave organized by FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO), Young FLO (YFLO) and Sleepwell Foundation, Gandhi said that the Council should be up and running within a year. The conclave was held to celebrate International Women's Day.

She said that in order to eliminate begging by children, the ministry has decided to come down heavily on those indulging and promotion the social evil. To this end, an Anti-Trafficking Bill is to be posed for Parliamentary approval shortly.

However, she added that her ministry was also working on an App to curb harassment to women in any form. The app, named 'Shouting App' that would allow the victim to reach out to 10 people near her to keep the perpetrators at bay before the arrival of the police. The app is expected to be functional by this month end.

"Proactive Community Wellness is not just about what each of us do as individuals. It is also about how, as a group of empowered and privileged women, we can affect each other and the impact that we can have together on the health of our community," said president FLO, Vinita Bimbhet.

Trupti Gupta, Chairperson, YFLO Delhi, emphasized that community wellness is an all important topic that needs to be addressed by young people like us.

"All of us need to get out of our comfort zone and work together for the betterment of our society," added Gupta.

"For all of us women, irrespective of our class, strata and urban luxurious living, the stakes are very high. So, by working together, we have to ensure that our surrounding community remains healthy holistically physically, emotionally, creatively, intellectually and spiritually. Chikungunia, pollution, increasing crime and unrest are some of the issues that affect us all. And we can't escape from them anymore."

The highlight of the event were addresses by eminent personalities Rashmi Malik, Secretary, Spic Macay, Deepa Malik, Motivational Speaker and Athlete; Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta-The Medicity; Debjani Ghosh, Vice President, Intel South Asia; Anshu Gupta, Founder-'Goonj'; Vivek Agnihotri, Film Director and Producer; Anju Modi, Fashion Designer; Pallavi Joshi, Film and TV Actor and Filmmaker; Aishwarya Dhanush, Film Director, Singer and Classical Dancer; Rene Singh, Singer and Music Composer; along with Manzil Mystics Group.