“Indian women are gifted with the talent to strike balance between home and work easily. Just like Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari, the five iconic heroines of Hindu epics, women of today are also opinionated and multi-faceted personalities,” said Kavitha Kalvakuntla, member of Parliment from Nizamabad, while addressing Young FICCI ladies organisation members on Friday.
Kavita who is seen as an embodiment of a strong and successful women, later went on to relate Indian women to the five elements of nature. “We are a balance of all and with quality we can lead the world,” she said.
The MP also stressed that the fairer sex has been transformed from being timid women to free spirited ones today. “While earlier it was men who decided which television set to buy for their house, now women also have equal say. This is because of the awareness created by e-commerce sites. It gives them a freedom to know more about the products at their own convenience,” she explained.
Asserting that no profession was exclusively for men anymore, she exemplified Chanda Kochhar, managing director of ICICI Bank. “Most of women these days have taken charge of their career. They don’t go for engineering just because their father asked them to. That is why we can see them in various fields like IAS, IPS, social service. They are contributing to their own success,” she said adding more examples of successful woman like Naina Lal Kidwai who became the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School and Preetha Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals (Chennai).
Kavitha also gave credit to Indian women for helping the country survive recession. “Indian women have the habit of saving money in banks and that’s how we did were affected by the economic slowdown,” she opines. While recounting the marks women are leaving in all spheres of life, the politico also rued that lot needs to be done for the upliftment of every woman in the country. “There are a few villages in our state where women are sarpanchs. But instead of they representing the village, it is there husbands who show up,” she said.
The solution to this is education, she opines. “Education removes fear from one’s mind. It encourages us to look for solution to a problem instead of living with it,” she said.
She was also all praise for women who have taken charge as leaders. She said, “There is a fundamental difference in the way men and women think. While a man uses his power, a woman keeps her goals and values in mind while leading, which is a sensitive and holistic approach.”
Kavitha encouraged all women present on the occasion to be vocal about domestic violence and sexual assault and requested them to take active part in educating underprivileged children, mentoring aspiring women entrepreneurs.