One Woman is raped every 54 minutes in India

One woman is raped every 54 minutes, 60 per cent of women are married before the age of 18 years and UN estimates reveal that 20,000 - 30,000 women are pushed into flesh trade.
A four-day workshop on the ‘Gender Equality Through Entrepreneurship Development’ was inaugurated at ICSSR Complex by Dean University Instructions Prof Veer Singh at Panjab University.
The workshop is jointly organised by National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small business Development (NIESBD) and Centre for Women’s Studies and Development, PU.
‘‘The situation can only be reversed by changing the mind set and the effort has to be made first within one’s own family,’’ he said.
In her keynote address, Dr Rita Sengupta, NIESBD, explored the concept of entrepreneurship and how its development is significant for achieving gender equality. She declared that women already are entrepreneurs, for an entrepreneur mobilises resources and uses these for productive purposes, something that all women do.
‘‘However, very few people decide to take up entrepreneurship as a profession,’’ she said.
Director of Centre for Women Studies, PU, Prof Aruna Goel, stated that the social status of women is directly connected with her economic status.
‘‘Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, but earn only 10 per cent of the income and own one per cent of the property,’’ she added.
The working session of the workshop was on ‘Understanding Gender’. Prof Sherry Sabbarwal, the resource person for this session, explained how the subordination of women in society is a ‘construction’ of society.
Biology, she declared, does not determine women’s social status, society does.