We should carry forward and improve upon Matrilineal system: Paul
Shillong, Mar 8: The state budget provisions have over 60 per cent concentration on welfare on women, said health minister Ampareen Lyngdoh while addressing International Women’s Day celebrations in the city on Saturday.
This is an indication on the part of the government to accelerate its action on ensuring women’s welfare, she said.
She also expressed her delight in women making significant progress in different strata of life.
“I am happy to see that women of this generation are accelerators of economic change. I have met women in Jaintia Hills who have just suffered tremendous loss of livelihood after the NGT ban on coal and now they’ve risen like phoenix,” said Lyngdoh.
The minister said nowadays women come forward to bring the communities together and encouraging each other to shift in professions and livelihood and had excelled as communities.
She said the ASHA workers and the Aganwadi workers who are all women are the backbone and strength of the society.
“I want to thank all the ASHA workers for the commendable work that they are doing every day from one door to the other, taking care of the help of pregnant mothers, young children,” she said.
Lyngdoh informed that in most of the villages and towns women have taken charge as Secretary of VECs who are now directing communities towards economic growth.
“Today we will say that the women of the state of Meghalaya will contribute substantially to the 10 billion economy that we envisage for the state in 2032” she added.
While acknowledging the need to have reservation for women in politics, Lyngdoh said, “I am convince that in 2028, if the women reservation comes, we will have women who will lead the state in the right direction.”
The minister asserted the need to work together for ensuring welfare of women in the state.
“We have to build on this resource because government alone in its machinery is in able to reach out unless community participation is initiated,” she added.
Lyngdoh informed that the state government had come out with several initiatives to provide assistance to women in the state.
She added that the Safe Motherhood Scheme, Mother Apps and the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karkaram Program of the central government have saved many mothers from an otherwise threat to life in their pregnancies.
Minister in-charge of social welfare, Paul Lyngdoh in his speech said the department consists of an energetic team which is working together to ensure that rest of the world looks up to Meghalaya as advocate of women’s rights.
Lyngdoh said the facts and figures of work done by the department have played a deep and intense in changing the fortune of several families, and not just those directly impacted by the department.
“I am glad to say this that whenever I interact with people across the country, they acknowledge the fact that whenever they visit Meghalaya they notice that women are held in high regard,” said Lyngdoh, adding, “This is a tradition that we should carry forward and further improve upon.”
The minister said there is a need to work together in the pursuit of ensuring of gender equality as to ensure women rights in the state and making Meghalaya as one of the safest place for women in the country.
