New Delhi: Expressing happiness about Rani Mistris work in Jharkhand that helped the state achieve open defecation free status recently, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu speaking at the Women Entrepreneurship Platform Conclave organised by the NIITI Aayog, WEP and UN in India said that our country should start focusing on gender equality and start treating women as same as men. He said,
“Happy to note that 55,000 women masons called Rani Mistris have been trained by the Jharkhand government.”
Further talking about their contribution towards meeting state’s swachh goals, he added,
They played a crucial role in that state’s achievement of #OpenDefecationFree status and helped construct more than 15 lakh toilets under the #SwachhBharat mission.
Today across the country, there are more than 8 million women who have started or are running their businesses, with more than 58% of women entrepreneurs starting their ventures between the ages of 20 and 30. Keeping this in mind, discrimination against women has to end, be it in terms of differential wages or skewed opportunities for career advancement.
Happy to note that 55,000 women masons called Rani Mistris have been trained by the Jharkhand government. They played a crucial role in that State’s achievement of #OpenDefecationFree status and helped construct more than 15 lakh toilets under the #SwachhBharat mission. #WEP pic.twitter.com/Q4qPO0DuDP
— Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) December 16, 2018
He further added,
It is high time that we focus on gender equality. Women have to be given a level playing field. 5 “E”s are to be given importance: Education Equality of opportunity Empowerment through skilling Emancipation from discrimination & Enabling conditions for economic upliftment.
It is high time that we focus on gender equality. Women have to be given a level playing field. 5 “E”s are to be given importance:
Education
Equality of opportunity
Empowerment through skilliing
Emancipation from discrimination &
Enabling conditions for economic upliftment. pic.twitter.com/yEc04CKTHF— Vice President of India (@VPSecretariat) December 16, 2018
Earlier in 2018, Jharkhand created a pool of women masons also called Rani Mistris to fill state’s acute shortage of masons to work as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin. The government of Jharkhand trained women masons on how to construct toilets and later provided them certificates so that this training can open job opportunities for them in future. Because of the women masons pool, Jharkhand in November declared all its rural parts free from open defecation practices and made a mark by achieving the target of constructing nearly three lakh toilets in a month’s time, while paving the way for women empowerment.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
