Excerpts from the speech delivered by the Mayor, Rajana Ramani at the award ceremony and public forum of Women-friendly cities -2004 held at Amikas, Fukuoka City's Women's Centre, Japan on the 8th of March, 2004.

Director of UN-HABITAT, Mayors representing their respective cities, delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed a great privilege and honour for me to be here in this august forum to receive the Women-friendly Cities Award 2004, particularly on International Women's Day. On behalf of my city and also on behalf of the women of India, I extend my thanks to Un-HABITAT, UNIFEM and UMP-Asia Pacific for this great honour bestowed on my city, Visakhapatnam.

It is a fact that women suffer from a number of disabilities and prejudices throughout the globe in different degrees and the World has been witnessing a new phenomenon, in what is called 'Feminization of Poverty', with 70% of the poorest being women. Social scientists have acknowledged the need to enhance the status of women and micro studies on women, focussing on less privileged women would provide clues to the understanding of this social reality. Women who are also bread-earners are exploited in several ways and are subjected to gender discrimination and oppression. They suffer silently and consider their suffering as their fate. This has to be changed, thus women need to be re-socialized and encouraged to move from a culture of silence to a culture of participation.

In India, with the 74th Constitutional Amendment 33% reservation for women in the local; governments has resulted in one million women taking part in direct politics at the local level. Women are now placed in all positions in the political set-up. Research findings indicate that besides progress in education, employment and health, women's decision making capacity will enhance her status.

The present literacy programme has played a dynamic role towards empowerment of women in the city of Visakhapatnam. The Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is developing a City Development Strategy (CDS), wherein a cross section of women members were taken in the working groups to develop strategies.

It has also chalked out concrete action plans to ensure women's empowerment. Out of a total of 3500 employees in the Corporation, 1129 are women. The Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation can claim that is has ensured the greater representation of women.

To conclude, I would like to appeal to the women's community, that the time has come to discard the philosophy of self-denial and to advocate the philosophy of marching  towards a higher scale of development. Appropriate and adequate mechanisms are being developed but the real empowerment lies on the adaptability of the mechanism with sincere participation.

Rajana Ramani