The National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam on Thursday held both women and men responsible for upholding the patriarchal system in India. “Despite making rapid strides, unfortunately even today India is a patriarchal society because patriarchy is also taken forward by Indian women and not just men,” Mangalam said.

She was speaking during an international conference here on ‘Policy dialogue on pre-natal sex selection’ organised by CSR and Heinrich Böll Stiftung India. “You don’t say to your daughter that she will be the next Prime Minister but you say she will be the next collector as that is quite appropriate to our Indian context,” she said.

Women, Mangalam said, are not taught that even they can own properties. “Advising women to invest (in properties) must be brought into the awareness discourse. Women have started getting financial independence in the sense that they have started earning but they don’t still have a say on where the money should be spent,” she said.

Defining dowry as a practice of buying husband for a daughter, she said, “I do not know how far we are going to go in terms of gender equity as long as this practice exists.” Mangalam further stressed on stricter monitoring of not only the families killing female fetuses but also those who make available and affordable the prenatal screening facilities.

She also said that Jan Dhan Yojana has been a resounding success and more women as compared to men have opened accounts under the scheme. Mangalam also emphasised that social media should be also available in vernacular languages so that it can reach people in far flung areas who lack knowledge of English.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.