India’s first female president vows to empower women
Pratibha Patil, India’s first female president, has vowed to eliminate the practice of aborting female fetuses and to empower women, who are often treated as second-class citizens. “Empowerment of women is particularly important to me as I believe this leads to the empowerment of the nation,” she told lawmakers, calling for universal education in India.
Last year, an international team of researchers estimated up to 10 million female fetuses had been aborted in the past 10 in years in India. The result is a gender ratio increasingly skewed in favour of men. Daughters are often seen as a burden because tradition requires that a bride’s family pay the groom’s family a large dowry of cash and gifts. Women’s education is often neglected, and many do not get adequate medical treatment.
Patil’s election to the largely ceremonial post, touted as an important step for gender equality, only elicited a lukewarm response from women who say it has given them little more than a symbol, not a leader who represents them. The president has already been embroiled in a controversy after calling on Indian women, both Muslims and Hindus, to abandon wearing headscarves.
