Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday stoked a potential controversy with her remark that all the violence is "male-generated" while underscoring the "critical" role of men in creating gender sensitivity.
Gandhi also said that her ministry is working on a concept of 'Gender Champions' in schools under which boys will be chosen for being "particularly respectful and helpful" to girls and given prizes.
Participating in a live chat with users on Facebook, Gandhi called for increased participation from men in creating gender sensitivity as they are male-generated.
"Men's role is the most critical since all the violence is male-generated. One of the ways to tackle this is at the school stage. So, we have started something which will go into effect in a few months, called 'Gender Champions' under which boys will be chosen who have been particularly respectful and helpful to girls and deserve to be emulated and rewarded," she said.
"Prizes will be given to a person in each class annually. It can also be given to a girl who has been outstanding in her bravery or attitude etc," she added.
The interaction was part of the ministry's effort to enhance participation for its '100 Women Initiative' to recognize women achievers.
On other issues, Gandhi said that India needed a new school every seven minutes in order to give quality education to slum children.
"Statistically, India needs a new school every seven minutes. Ours is the largest school system in the world. I agree we can do better," she said.
She also said that media is more sensitive to women issues in India as compared to abroad.
"Personally, I find that the media is more sensitive to women's issues in India as compared to abroad," she said while answering a question during the live interaction.
"Sometimes this gets us all into trouble internationally because the media takes one aspect of violence against women and continues to push individual cases giving the impression abroad that our society insensitive to women. On the other hand the media response to violence has also led to many good laws being made and better public awareness," she added.
Photographs: Lakshman Anand/Creative Commons
