Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated three-day 'Rashtra Raksha Samarpan Parv' on Wednesday in Jhansi and expressed his happiness over the increasing women's contribution to the armed forces ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre in 2014.
While addressing the inaugural ceremony, Singh said, "Women's contribution to the armed forces is increasing ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come to power."
"When I was the Home Minister, I had issued an advisory to all the states that all of them should make an effort to have at least 33 per cent women representation even in Police forces," he said.
"Today I am happy to say that women representation has increased in Police forces in many states," Singh said.
Further, he said that all the closed doors in the armed forces are also being opened for women. "We have increased their (women) representation in all the three wings of the armed forces. Girls are being admitted in Sainik Schools, portals of NDA have also been opened for women," the Defence Minister added.
"Unfortunately after independence, women didn't receive the opportunity to play a very active role in defending the nation. But now the situation is changing rapidly," the minister said.
The three-day inauguration event will culminate with the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19.
On the culmination day of the event, the Prime Minister will dedicate and launch several new initiatives of MoD to the nation in a grand ceremony being organised in the precincts of Jhansi Fort on November 19 which also is the birthday of Rani Lakshmi Bai, the epitome of bravery and courage and a great national icon of Rashtra Raksha and India's Independence struggle.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor