International Women's Day celebrated across the country

New Delhi, Mar 8: Messages appreciating the role of women in society and launch of various new projects aimed at their uplift marked the International Women's Day celebrations in the country today.

Union Panchayati Raj and Youth Affairs Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that the time had come for the immediate passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament.

In his message to the state-level Mela of Elected Women Representatives organised by the Swiss Government-sponsored 'Hunger Project' in Bangalore he said, ''Though we have succeeded in empowering women at the Panchayat level, we are yet to achieve it at the top level.'' Indirectly referring to the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill, he said ''At the top we have succeeded in producing a lady Prime Minister who ruled the country for over 15 years and at the bottom we have as many as 12 lakh elected women representatives in our Panchayats and Nagar Palikas. But between the two, in our Parliament and in State Assemblies, I am afraid our performance has been very poor.'' In Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy participating in the International Women's Day celebrations organised by the government, said women had been treated as second class citizens in Indian society for many years.

Members in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly also demanded that the long pending bill for providing one-third reservation for women be adopted by Parliament early. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation(APSRTC) announced that women conductors would not be made to work after 2200 hrs.

The women crew of the APSRTC have been urging the authorities since long that their duty hours should not be stretched beyond 2200 hrs as they were facing problems in reaching home. The APSRTC, in another gesture launched two services exclusively for women commuters in the city.

Meanwhile, workshops, conferences, cultural programmes and fashion shows were organised in Tamil Nadu to celebrate womanhood today.

City-based MMA Women Managers' Forum organised a convention on the topic 'Women in India: 2020 There's no Stopping Us' to mark the occasion.

Thousands of women from self-help groups gathered at Valluvar Kottam here yesterday and listened to talks on how women influence decision making.

As nearly 20 lakh Indian women, most of them innocent, were affected by HIV/AIDS, the National AIDS Control Organisation made use of the occasion to exhort women to take a pledge to fight HIV/AIDS.

Womanhood was also celebrated in Karnataka today through various programmes, with several agencies underlining the need for further empowerment of the fairer sex.

Functions were organised by various women's organisations, NGOs and political parties across the state to create awareness among women about various welfare schemes launched by the centre and the state government for their benefit.

In Madjya Pradesh the government has decided to release certain categories of female prisoners who were awarded life imprisonment after December 18, 1978 and completed 14 years of incarceration.

Likewise, prisoners who are not facing life sentences but have completed half their terms by March 8, 2006 would get the privilege of this relaxation, an official release said here.

UNI