Educated women should work for the rural poor: President

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) President, Pratibha Patil today emphasised the need for the educated, confident and discerning women of the country to work for the upliftment of the rural poor in country and spread the message of women empowerment in such areas.

Interacting with Political Science students from Villa Marie Degree College for Women, Hyderabad, Ms Patil said she is happy that girls in the country are coming forward in different fields but stressed that the trend must spread to the rural areas.

Terming Rastrapati Bhawan as the people's house and calling herself the people's first servant, Ms Patil, added that the urban area's girls have already proved their mark in various fields like law, medical and corporate houses.

In the same vein, Ms Patil said, the educated girls will have to play a role in spreading the message of literacy and empowerement.

Welcoming the increasing number of girls able to lift themselves from a past, which Ms Patil termed as 'not satisfying' , the President told the girls that they owe it to the country to give someting back to it. ''Women in particular should have this feeling of giving it back to the society in the form of social service becuase the country needs social awareness among people who are not educated or who did not have the chance to study.'' Ms Patil asked the college girls to use their education for the betterment of the society since she felt a lot of work needed to be done in the field of economy, education, health. '' Work for the urban poor and uplift the ones staying in the slums.

Because of our eductaion it becomes our duty to give back something to the society,'' Ms Patil added.

The students from Villa Marie are on a visit to New Delhi to have a practical exposure to the functioning of the government.

They also visited Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to see its functioning.

UNI