New Delhi:
No country can progress if women are not treated with respect, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said as he opened a key meeting of the National Integration Council held in the shadow of communal violence that ravaged Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh a fortnight ago.
Safety of women was key on the agenda as union ministers, chief ministers and eminent public figures discussed ways to prevent communal clashes.
Noting that violence against women was on the rise, the PM said, "We must change our mindset to stop crimes against women. Our country can only develop if women are free to make equal choices."
The remarks come as incidents of rape have been reported from across the country with alarming regularity even after four men were convicted and sentenced to death for the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi. A fifth accused allegedly committed suicide in jail and the youngest accused, who was a juvenile at the time of the rape, was sentenced to three years at a reform home.
The gang-rape in Mumbai last month by five men, who assaulted a young photojournalist and her colleague at an abandoned mill in the heart of the city, reignited the nationwide outrage that followed the Delhi gang-rape.
Dr Singh said changes had been made in the law for stronger punishment after the Delhi gang-rape, but there was a need to focus on implementation.
Expressing similar views before the PM, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had called on the need to discuss and change the attitude of society towards women.