As people around the world celebrated the importance of women in society and their victories against inequality on International Women's Day on Friday, March 8, Bangalore Political Action Committee (B PAC) and British Deputy High Commission Bengaluru organised a panel discussion titled "Women in Public Policy & Politics" to mark the day. The program emphasised on International Women's Day theme #BalanceForBetter – calling for collective action and shared responsibility for driving a gender-balanced world by creating gender-balanced institutions, media and workplaces.
Addressing the event, Former union minister and governor Margaret Alva said, "Women have made positive changes in the grass root level and it is very evident in the statistics compared to the last two decades. Though this is a long way to go in empowering women, we are sure this positive trend will continue."
A panel discussion on 'Women in public policy and politics' was moderated by Revathy Ashok with panel members Margaret Alva, Prof MV Rajeev Gowda, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Vanditha Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary to govt and Developmental Commissioner, GoK, Vijayalakshmi Bidari, IAS, Chevening Scholar and journalist Dhanya Rajendran. The panellists collectively voiced an opinion strongly to support women's participation in decision making in politics, administration and public policy.
"India women in leadership was a successful initiative to bring more women leaders into politics and we intend to take it to every corner off this country because there an innate need for such progressive imitative," said Rajeev Gowda.
Dominic McAllister, British Deputy High Commission, Bengaluru while delivering the welcome address said: "This year's theme is #BalanceForBetter - calling for collective action & shared responsibility for driving a gender-balanced world."
"B PAC along with British Deputy High Commission, Bengaluru curated this program to positively influence the society and the system highlighting women participation and emphasizing the challenges faced by women across the different spectrum of public life and bringing a positive change," Revathy Ashok, CEO B PAC said.
