Speaker for political will to ensure women's equal rights

Jatiya Sangsad Speaker and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Chairperson Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury yesterday said political will and effective steps are required to ensure equal rights of women and their economic emancipation.

"It is possible to ensure development of women and their economic emancipation by taking effective and proper steps," she said addressing the inaugural ceremony of three-day National Women's Parliament (NWP) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Andhra Pradesh government organized the event at Amrabati with the cooperation of MAEER'S MIT School of Government, Pune, CPA and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IUP), said an official release here.

The speaker said participation of women in decision making process is necessary. Women should be given scopes to give leadership in political and other fields, she added.

"In Bangladesh, all the Prime Minister, the speaker, the deputy leader and the opposition leader in parliament are women," she said, adding that Bangladesh has already attained many of the UN-declared development goals under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dr. Shirin Sharmin said attaining economic emancipation and developed society is not possible keeping half of the population backward. The CPA chairperson called for making the people aware about democracy and democratic governance system.

She urged all to come forward to ensure gender parity in light of democratic values.

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker Dr. Kodela Shiva Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu and MIT-School of Government founder Rahul V. Karad also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu called on Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at her hotel.

Source: BSS