Need to create more opportunities for women: Kiran Bedi

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi today stressed the need for creating more opportunities for women, saying nothing can stop them from doing what they want if given a chance.
Speaking at the first National Women's Parliament here, Bedi said it was important that women, as teachers, mothers and leaders, create more opportunites for young girls so that they can follow and fulfill their dreams.
"We women are products of opportunities. If we get an opportunity, nothing can stop us. Nothing can stop a girl from doing what she wants if we can create these opportunities for them," she said.
Bedi said while it was important for women to get an opportunity, it was also necessary to know what to do with it, which would be a "game-changer".

"Leadership is not outside us. It lies in how we use our opportunities. The day we realise what to do with what we get, it will be a game-changer. If we as mothers, teachers and leaders, use this leadership and create this leadership to make opportunity for our girls, nothing can stop them," she said.
"We as women create youth. We should see how we nurture our sons and how brave we make our daughters, because that youth is going to grow up to be a great India and will transform India," she said.

The Puducherry L-G also said that the 'swacchata' in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' was a reference to the cleanliness of not just surroundings but also of "mind, body and soul".

"Swacch is in mind, body and soul. Answer the call of our Prime Minister. We have to go beyond our homes, to the lanes, to the villages and do Gandhi's Swacch Bharat," she said.
Bedi urged people to keep the country clean, and in turn save the "crores" of money that go in "cleaning the drain", to be used in educating children.
She also called for the National Women's Parliament be turned into an annual event, which she said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had told her would be hosted in the state until some other state takes over.