Embassy of India celebrates International Women’s Day

Muscat: A colourful event celebrating the International Women’s Day was recently organized at the Indian embassy, and was attended by a large number of Omani and Indian women.
Speaking on the occasion, Guest of Honour Her Highness Sayyida Basma Al Said spoke about her recent visit to India and shared her perception of the status of Indian women as observed by her during the visit.
She highlighted the need for change in mind-set of both men and women to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women, and honoured ten Indian women achievers from the community in Oman by presenting them with shawls.
Considering the occasion, it was also for the first time that Sushma Pandey, wife of Indramani Pandey the Indian Ambassador to Oman, welcomed the audience on behalf of the embassy.
In her welcome address, she talked about the importance of celebrating Women’s Day and emphasized on the achievements of women across the world and in India and Oman.
She also underlined the challenges which women still face in many parts of the world and called for an end to the practices of discrimination and bias against women, including social, religious, and cultural traditions and prejudices.
Sushmita Gupta, a painter and author in Oman also made a presentation on the status of women in India.
As part of the celebration, a documentary, titled ‘Indian Women: An Indomitable Spirit’ was also screened, which presented success stories of five women in fields of engineering, science and technology, business, art and local governance.
The Constitution of India guarantees fundamental rights to both men and women. There have been tremendous changes in the status of women in India since independence.
The Government of India is committed to promoting social and economic empowerment of women through its welfare policies and programmes, mainstreaming gender concerns, creating awareness about women’s rights and providing institutional and legislative support.
In order to fulfill this vision, the Government of India has recently launched a number of initiatives which aims at encouraging people to save for education and marriage of girl child.