Women should strive for a better society

Hanamkonda: Assembly Speaker Sirikonda Madhusudhana Chary stressed on the need for a revolution for the better utilisation of human resources for an all-round growth of the society.

Women, though treated with high regard across the cultures, played a restricted role in the development of society in the country for the past several decades. Women need to become aware of their strengths and employ them for the betterment of the society, he suggested.

Speaking at the inaugural of a seminar on ‘Role of Social Media in Empowerment of Women’, at Kakatiya University here on Monday, the Speaker expressed concern over the moral degradation creeping into the social order. Everyone concerned need to make efforts to rectify it.

Madhusudhana Chary, while acknowledging the social media role in empowering the women in the country, said care should be taken towards responsible use of the medium. He also wanted the political leaders to be conscientious while using the social media.

A retired professor of journalism of Osmania University, PL Visveshwara Rao noted that about 70 per cent girls in the country were quitting studies at 10th standard. Only four per cent of the girls were able to get access to university education.

Though social media was helping to highlight women issues, the laws in the country were not effective in protecting the women rights. The social media was being used extensively in gram panchayats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana states, he explained.

A senior journalist, K Srinivas, felt that social media has emerged as peoples’ media with more than half the people in the world using smart phones in sharing news and information. The social media was also helpful for individuals to promote their business.

There were 25 social networking sites like Facebook, google plus and twitter available for the users and their widespread use might pose threat to the newspapers. News about incidents like Nirbhaya case and murder of journalist Gouri Lankesh was extensively shared on social media sites, he noted.

The director of the seminar and KU SDLCE Prof Ch Dinesh Kumar said though usage of social media was less in India in comparison to countries like USA, its usage was fast spreading over taking the print and electronic media.

MLA D Vinay Bhasker, KU Vice-Chancellor Prof R Sayanna and the seminar convener S Malleshwar also spoke. Nearly 100 scholars from different universities were taking part in the seminar.