DW BUREAU / Ambala

Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu felicitated 12 women of the state in Himachal Dastak's Nari Tu Narayani program for their outstanding work in various fields. He felicitated Anjana Vakil of Chamba district, Seema Kumar Chaudhary of Kangra district, Monika Singh of Una district, Chetna Sharma of Hamirpur, Rachna Kumari of Bilaspur district, Diksha of Mandi district, Anita Thakur of Kullu district, Rigozan Choidon of Lahaul-Spiti district, Ratan Manjari of Kinnaur district, Kamala Chauhan of Shimla district, Neel Kamal of Solan district and Khushnuma of Sirmaur district.

Congratulating everyone, the Chief Minister said that the state government is giving special priority to the upliftment and welfare of women and has started many welfare schemes in the last two years. He said that today the self-confidence of daughters has increased, which reflects the changing attitude of our society. Appreciating the efforts of Himachal Dastak, he said that this is a proper platform to honour women facing challenges. He said, "I had come to this program last year too. I appreciate the spirit of this event."

The Chief Minister said that Ratan Manjari of Kinnaur district has been fighting for women's rights for the last many years because women in tribal areas are deprived of many rights under the law. He said, "I am in favor of giving equal rights to women as well. Depriving someone of rights is not good. Our government is trying to build consensus in this direction and after building consensus, we will not shy away from changing the law." He said that after taking oath as Chief Minister, he broke the tradition of going to the Secretariat and went to the Balika Ashram. He said that the country's first law was made to adopt all 6000 orphan children as 'Children of the State'. In the second budget, provision was made to bear the entire cost of higher education of 23 thousand children of widows till the age of 27 years.

(editor@dailyworld.in)