President meets members of Women's Empowerment Centres of Ladakh

New Delhi, Sep 19 (UNI) President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today met members of Women's Empowerment Centres and Adult Literacy Centres of Eastern Ladakh at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This group of 21 women from the remote villages of Eastern Ladakh, are currently in New Delhi as a part of the Indian Army's efforts for empowerment and development of people residing in remote areas of the nation's frontiers. The Army runs various projects under the banner of Operation Sadbhavana. Among these are the Women's Empowerment Centres and Adult Literacy Centres established in remote villages.

Besides empowering them with literacy and vocational skills, the Army also undertakes excursion tours for students of these centres to other parts of the country in order to give them an experience of other areas of the nation, its rich history and heritage as well as the technological advances that have been made.

The President was keen to know about the activities of the women and about the educational infrastructure as well as the state of education of girls. The group members told her that over the past few years, girls are taking the advantage of the Army's initiatives and therefore are benefiting from the school education. They also told her that during their 14-day excursion tour, they had travelled by bus all the way from Tangtse in Eastern Ladakh and visited Manali, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Panipat before reaching Delhi.

They told the President that while in Delhi, they had seen the Lotus Temple, the Jantar Mantar, the Red Fort, the Qutub Minar, the Jama Masjid, the Rail Museum, India Gate, Rajghat, the Air Force Museum and Delhi Zoo. While at Rashtrapati Bhavan they also visited the Mughal Gardens.

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