Srinagar, September 10
Congress president Sonia Gandhi here today said that women bore the brunt of natural, social or political onslaughts and women empowerment was necessary. This could be achieved through education and by providing them with ample opportunities.

She called for efforts to heal the deep wounds inflicted on the hearts and minds of people in Jammu and Kashmir during the past about two decades of violence and urged women to prevent the families and social strata from breaking down.

The Congress president and UPA chairperson was addressing the women’s meet organised by the Central Social Welfare Board, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, and the Jammu and Kashmir State Social Welfare Board at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex (SKICC) lawns here this afternoon. She held that the government and the people played an important role in nursing the wounds inflicted during violence, adding that the situation in the state had improved.

She said people-to-people contact had been increased with the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawlakote roads along the LoC. Despite threats and militants, progress and development were going on.

“We have moved forward,” Gandhi said, adding that public support was the determining factor in this direction.

The UPA chairperson added that the Centre had launched a major reconstruction programme, tourism development, new schemes in other sectors like handicrafts, opening of new schools and colleges and the eradication of unemployment.

Hoping that efforts would be made towards women empowerment, Gandhi announced that the amount for this purpose had been increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 6 crore.

Referring to the problems faced by women and children in the wake of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, she called for help to these sections with proper training and urged the central and state boards concerned to instill confidence among them.

Gandhi was accompanied by the union home minister Shivraj Patil, water resources minister Saifuddin Soz and union minister of state for women and child development Renuka Choudhary. Rajini Patil, chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board, and M.M. Jacob, CWC member in charge of Jammu and Kashmir, were also present on the occasion.