Under the joint collaboration of the Bohra Youth Association, Udaipur and the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Udaipur an evening of discussions on the relevance of Women’s Day, was organized today evening on the eve of International Women’s Day.

The event, which was attended by many prominent public personalities and members of the general public, was held at the Community Hall, Boharwadi, Udaipur.

Presided over by Dr. Farida Shah, the event saw a gathering of many personalities from the social, academic and public service sections of society.

The Chief Guest of the event was Professor Renu Jatana, who is the Director of the Women Study Centre, Mohanlal Sukhadia University. Other prominent guests at the event included Dr. Zenab Banu, President, PUCL; Pramodini Bakshi, Senior Advocate; Chandra Bhandari, ex-President PUCL; Dr. Gini Srivastava, Director of Aastha NGO; and Ashwin Paliwal, Secretary, PUCL.

The flavor of the discussion was more towards taking note of view points and deliberations on problems being faced by women folk today and reviewing corrective actions, rather than simply celebrating International Women’s Day.

It was observed through the available statistics that even today, there was a need for corrective action as women rights is not an easily available commodity in current times. Women are not being provided with right to education, health and other basic rights, in addition to which even the general domestic condition of a woman is not improving.

It was noted most importantly, that the Gender Inequality Index was far higher in India than more underdeveloped nations such as Rwanda, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

As a final conclusion to the discussion, the participants in the event pledged their undying support towards the cause of women uplifting and empowerment. It was noted that unless the attitude of society changes and more importantly, till there is no increase in self-awareness among the women folk, this issue cannot be tackled with ease.

On the occasion, a project report on the work done by Dr. Zenab Banu, titled “Human Rights Abuse & Women” was released.