Women’s plight in India discussed at MICA's Pragati

Issues relating to Indian women found a stage at the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA) on Saturday.

One of the speakers at the institute's social entrepreneurial meet - Pragati - and founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Zakia Soman highlighted deplorable condition of women, increased rate of female foeticide and the insidiousness of patriarchal society.

In her speech, Soman said that women themselves treat each other as second class citizens and brought to light the existence of two distinct Indians - one that is progressive and the other that is regressive.  Pragati, the one-day event, aimed at providing a platform to various social entrepreneurs to expand their knowledge base about social models and for all stakeholders in the social sector, said MICAns attending the meet.

The theme of this year's event was "Envision, Encourage and Empower". Official communiqué from the institute state that the event aimed to target issue of sustainability in the increasing race for indiscriminate development. The chief guest for the event was former chief secretary, government of Gujarat PK Laheri, who addressed the crowd and emphasised importance of the youth and direction they take the nation towards, it stated.

NGOs like CARE, SMILE Foundation and Help Rural India among others took part in the Pragati event.