Society needs to change for women betterment: Ansari

Chennai: Vice president M. Ha­mid Ansari feels social attitudes are to blame for the country becoming unsafe for women today.

Interacting with students of Justice Ba­­s­he­er Ahmed Say­eed Coll­ege for Women here on Tue­sday he said that unless women were treated as equals in all walks of life the situation wo­uld not change.

“Unless we are able to see women as fellow hu­man beings, fellow citizens and provide them equal rights this situation will continue to arise. It is unfortunate that it has to be addre­ssed at the level of society as a whole,” he added.

Ansari, who was replying to a question on why women still felt unsafe despite the ma­ny laws around to protect them, said it boiled down to social attitudes.

“Most important is social attitude for which are individually and collectively all res­pon­si­ble,” he said,  str­e­ssing that  crime aga­inst wo­men was a serious matter and  its roots had to be addressed to wipe it out from the society.

Asked about the status of wo­men’s reservation Bill, he pointed out  that it had been passed in the Rajya Sabha and  only needed  the Lok Sabha’s okay now.

Taking a dig at the opp­o­sition parties for stal­ling Parliament,  he said th­ose participating in the House proceedings see­med to have conclu­ded that making a no­ise was much preferable to a debate.
“The only viable sol­u­tion is to have longer sessions so that the forum of debate is not taken out of Parli­a­ment,” he maintained.