First Lady of the UT, Mrs. Smita Murmu today said that women are as capable as men, and only a little bit of hand holding can do wonders when it come to achieving something by women.She was interacting with the girl students of Janak Madan Kanya Chhatrawaas, a girls hostel at Pouni Chak, maintained by Sewa Bharti, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working for the welfare of women, destitutes, rural folks, urban slum dwellers and economically weaker sections of the society.“Women have been inherently strong. Right from vedic era upto India’s freedom struggle and even today, women have excelled in every field and have even outperformed their men counterparts in terms of achievements in many areas. It is only recently that some regressive mindset has been reflected in certain areas raising concerns, which led to the policy decisions like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ compaign,” she maintained while responding to a query from a girl on the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign.Mrs. Murmu was impressed by the culturally diverse presentations by the girls of the hostel, the attraction of the programme being the songs presented by the girls in twelve different languages, ranging from Kashmiri, Dogri & Ladakhi to Tamil, Marathi, Gujrati, and Bengali.
The girls aged seven to seventeen years belonging to various corners of J&K and Ladakh gave an overview of the learning activities undertaken by the NGO, which has been preparing them for various roles and challenges by training them in several enriching skills like cutting, tailoring, cooking, music and fine arts etc, besides academic studies. The NGO has also been inculcating the habits like sanitation and hygiene, discipline, confidence building, cultural integration, dignity of labour, honesty and integrity etc among the girls. She exhorted the enthusiastic girls to work hard and prove their capabilities in various fields to empower the society.A skit on the harmful effects of plastic was also displayed by the girls.Later, Mrs. Murmu interacted with women Self Help Groups (SHG’s) being run by Sewa Bharti. These SHG’s are engaged in various activities like soap making, cutting-tailoring & knitting, computers, spice-grinding and packing, besides health awareness involving yoga, health checkups etc. She appreciated the working of these SHG’s and urged them to keep empowering the women folks in the rural areas.Mrs Murmu also lauded the achievements of another women led NGO viz ‘Mukti’ for taking initiative in exposing the unexplored handicraft of rural areas by making mats and footwear from wheat and rice straw, and bagging ‘Kala Nidhi’ award in the recently concluded International Surajkund Handicrafts Fair at Faridabad, Haryana.Those present on the occasion were Sh. Jaidev, Kshetriya Sangathan Mantri, Sewa Bharti, members of Sewa Bharti (NGO), women SHG’s, local women and girl students of the hostel.