Children should have knowledge of women freedom fighters:Irani

Textile Minister Smriti Irani today said knowledge about women freedom fighters and their contributions would help the children develop a healthy opinion about women, besides bringing down incidents of gender violence.
"We have to utilise the history of our women freedom fighters to correct the future. Learning such stories from a very young age will help the children understand that women are competent. It will also help them develop a healthy opinion about women, besides reducing incidents of gender violence," she said.
As of now, "nationalism" in India had a "tint of masculinity" attached to it and Bhagat Singh stood as one of the icons of nationalism, whereas, the heroics of several women freedom fighters remained unheard, added Irani.

She said this during the release of a book, titled 'A Study of Life', the English translation of 'Jeebon Adhyayan', the autobiography of woman freedom fighter Kalyani Bhattacharjee. Her son Jay Bhattacharjee has translated it from Bengali to English.
Irani also advised researchers to take up a study on women freedom fighters and bring out an empirical evidence for the benefit of future generations.
JNU professor Makarand Paranjape, who was also present on the occasion, said it was important to have a "model of cooperation", instead of building a "model on comparison and competitiveness" between both the genders for women empowerment.