Governor R.N. Ravi with the women achievers at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Friday.
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

No society or country can develop if women are not given equal opportunities to grow, said Governor R.N. Ravi on Friday.

Addressing women achievers at the Raj Bhavan, as part of his ‘Think to Dare’ series, the Governor interacted with a number of women achievers from various professional backgrounds, such as entrepreneurship, sports, medicine and teaching. Students and women belonging to self-help groups and NGOs also participated in the interaction.

Mr. Ravi felicitated Kamala Selvaraj, obstetrician and gynaecologist, Mallika Bhadrinath, author and culinary expert, Elavenil Valarivan, shooter, Nandita Thakkar, infertility specialist, Meenakshi, homecook and YouTuber, Saranya Jaikumar, educational psychologist, S. Priya, associate vice president, TIDCO, and Vasantha Gowri, ophthalmologist.

The gathering was coordinated by the Women’s League Foundation. “Our society has not been women-friendly in giving opportunities to them. Each one of you has overcome a number of obstacles to reach where you are now,” said Mr. Ravi.

The Governor said there were two revolutionary changes with respect to gender equality – balancing of skewed gender ratio in population and voter list.

“This is an indication of rising women power. Just the beginning, there’s a long way to go. Here comes the role of young women, women entrepreneurs,” he said.

Mr. Ravi urged women to interact with students in universities and inspire them to achieve greater heights.

“Despite a global recession after the COVID-19 pandemic, our economy is fast growing. And the world looks at India with hope that our country will be the engine of global recovery. When you grow, the nation grows,” he said.