SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on April 28, addressed a national seminar on “Representation of Women of North East India in Multi-Disciplinary Discourse” at Don Bosco College in Tura.
The seminar was organised by IQAC, Department of Philosophy and Internal Complaints Committee of the institute.
The chief minister, while addressing the gathering, noted that there are many concerns specific to women, all of which are interconnected, and that many pregnancies can be spaced out if a woman is engaged in economic activity.
A certain amount of success can be attained, he continued, if we are able to economically empower women. Economic empowerment also plays a critical part in ensuring that difficulties are minimised.
According to the Chief Minister, the idea of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) was introduced in 2018, and by 2023, there were over 45,000 groups in existence.
“Meghalaya may be one of the few states in the country where almost 95% of our rural households, one woman from every household is in a self-help group, we have over 4 lakh SHGs,” he said.
Education Minister Rakkam Sangma added that while women have performed significantly better than men in a number of examinations, there is still a need for them to contribute more given their persuasiveness.