HYDERABAD: To celebrate International Women’s Day, a panel discussion comprising women achievers was held at Hotel Taj Deccan, Banjara Hills on Friday. Organised by British Deputy High Commission Hyderabad, the panellists included A Sri Devasena IAS, Adilabad district collector, Swati Lakra IPS, IGP – Women’s Safety, Kalpana Ramesh, founder of Lead Water Initiatives, SAHE, Shreya Chakraborty, research fellow at SaciWATERs, journalist Uma Sudhir, international karate champion Syeda Falak, Cyient delivery head Haritha Tallapaneni, among others. British Deputy High Commissioner to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Dr Andrew Fleming also took part.
Speaking about the leadership qualities of women, Sri Devasena said, “When we were undertaking palle nidra programme at Mediguda village in Ichoda mandal of Adilabad district, I found that the streets were free of litter and spanking clean at 6 in the morning. And the sarpanch of the village is a woman. Women empowerment must begin from home. Women must feel equally empowered at home as they are at work.”
When asked about additional steps to be taken to ensure women’s safety, Swati Lakra said, “We should go beyond law enforcement and find out the root cause of the issue, which is, men. Why do men behave like that? We must teach boys not to stare at women and to respect them. Also, families must be counselled to treat girls on an equal footing with boys.”
On self-defence as a form of empowerment, Syeda Falak pointed out, “Women must learn self-defence techniques, which boosts their confidence levels.”