Mysuru: “Women need to be reminded often that they also have a right to dream and go after realising their dreams and given a fair chance, women can be strong and determined enough to achieve the set goals,” said Pramoda Devi Wadiyar. She was speaking at a Conference on “Empowering the Indian Woman: A Vision to Fly Higher” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mysuru Chapter, at Hotel Grand Mercure here this morning and said, “Women empowerment means freedom from social, economical, political, caste and gender-based discrimination. One should be encouraged to develop self-confidence to articulate and communicate one’s thoughts and be given freedom to make choices.” Recalling the contributions of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar to women’s empowerment, she said that right to hold properties by women was advocated by him at a time when there was so much gender discrimination and she was proud of the fact that she belonged to such a family. On education, she said that it is the most important and indispensable tool for women empowerment. “However, it has been a challenge to change the attitude of disregard towards women which is so deep-rooted in society. But we have come a long way and today women are represented in all fields,” she said.
