The Minister of State for Education, Technical Education, Culture, Tourism, Department of Horticulture, Floriculture and Parks Priya Sethi today said to achieve true women empowerment can really be achieved when girl child is given her due importance and care as girls of today will be the women of tomorrow.She said this after inaugurating the “Display Your Talent”- an extra co-curricular festival exclusively for girls - organized at Police Auditorium Jammu under ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padao’ scheme. The festival is being held from November 21 to November 24, 2016.Priya Sethi while addressing the gathering said the role of education is extremely important in empowerment and it goes a long way in empowering women and the process of education has to begin early in life. “More and more girls need to be sent to school and provided quality and holistic education,” she added.The initiative of ‘BBBP’ is being implemented effectively under the dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi and the state Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti to eliminate the vices like female feticide and child marriages from the society.“With the efforts of central and state government, whole nation is collectively thinking about these issues and coming together to stand against them,” she added.
The Minister said that initiatives like this will go a long way in enabling girls to develop the ability to think critically besides helping them carve a positive self-image and increase their confidence level.“When given the right chances to nurture their talent and skills, girls have it in them to excel in different areas of life. It is therefore imperative that both government and non-government organizations work in cohesion to spread the message of saving and educating the girl child” the Minister said. The Minster asserted the a confident educated woman will be able to have equal participation in decision making, whether it’s in the family or at the community level and provide economic independence to women.The District Development Commissioner Jammu, Dr Simrandeep Singh informed the gathering that the objective of this event is to provide a single platform to girl students where they will be able to display their talent in a variety of creative fields. He informed that over 1000 girl students studying in classes IX to XII in about 130 different Govt schools of Jammu district are participating in this competition.Director Doordarshan Jammu Anjali Sharma, ADDC Jammu Anuradha Gupta, ADC Jammu Rifat Kohli, officials from the department of School Education, Planning, Staff from government schools along with students and parents were also present on the occasion.