Opinion Believing in her strength, putting her at the centre of the nation’s story
Empowerment means creating an environment in which a girl can grow into a confident citizen.
Empowerment means creating an environment in which a girl can grow into a confident citizen — her basic needs are secured and she is given the tools and opportunities to reach for the sky. In 2001, as Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi had certain rituals performed. The obvious choice to carry the sacred kalash would have been a purohit or a mahatma. Breaking with convention, Modi chose Ravina Jadav, a Dalit girl who lived in a slum. For him, the dignity of women was the first step towards their empowerment. Over the years, he has shared with me, and several others, his conviction that dignity should never be reserved for the powerful, and that those at the margins must be brought to the forefront.
I have seen this conviction from close quarters. Women who had, for generations, remained outside the circle of opportunity were to be partners in development, decision-makers and leaders, and not just recipients of welfare. For someone who has spent much of her public life witnessing the aspirations of women in villages and cities, this distinction has always been important. Empowerment means creating an environment in which a girl can grow into a confident citizen — her basic needs are secured and she is given the tools and opportunities to reach for the sky.
Modi’s years in Gujarat set the template. He launched the Kanya Kelavani Yojana for girls’ education and travelled from village to village to urge parents to send their daughters to school. Over the years, in one form or another, states across India, including those governed by political opponents, adopted, adapted and renamed similar schemes. After the Kutch earthquake, he asked that rebuilt homes be registered in the names of both husband and wife. He also confronted the entrenched practice of the sarpanch pati, telling women sarpanches plainly: “The power is yours, and you alone must exercise it.”
After taking over as Prime Minister, he launched schemes for women, placed them at the centre of India’s economic transformation and envisaged them as drivers of the economy. Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, crores of women got bank accounts for the first time in their lives. Sixty-eight per cent of beneficiaries of the MUDRA scheme are women. There is extraordinary power in a woman having a bank account in her own name, and access to credit that she can draw upon herself. I witnessed this transformation on Women’s Day in 2018, when the Prime Minister came to Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. He launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Abhiyan nationwide and also initiated the nationwide Poshan Abhiyan, the country’s flagship nutrition mission. I was witness to the excitement of a crowd of more than 1,00,000 people, nearly half of them women. BBBP now also focuses on increasing girls’ participation in STEM fields and expanding vocational training in areas traditionally dominated by men.
The NaMo Drone Didi scheme places agricultural drones in the hands of 15,000 women’s self-help groups. More than 75 per cent of beneficiaries of the Stand-Up India scheme are women entrepreneurs.
Under Modi’s leadership, women were granted permanent commissions in the armed forces, admitted to the National Defence Academy and inducted into combat roles. Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh made history as India’s first woman fighter pilot to qualify as a flying instructor, and she flies the Rafale. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — reserving a third of the Parliament seats for women — was passed under his leadership.
Several Opposition leaders lecture the nation on women’s rights while governments led by their own parties struggle to find room for women at the decision-making table. Under Modi’s leadership, in contrast, women have occupied important offices — from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan, from the battlefield to the boardroom. The difference between the two approaches is the difference between a slogan and a lifelong commitment.
Symbolism matters in India. For PM Modi, however, symbolism has always carried substance. On International Women’s Day in 2020, he did something unprecedented. He temporarily handed over his social-media accounts, followed by millions, to seven women achievers. He repeated the gesture in 2025, and this time Rajasthan’s Ajaita Shah was among those who were recognised. Shah, a Tufts University alumna, has worked tirelessly to empower women, including in Dholpur in Rajasthan.
I have known Narendra Modi as a karyakarta, a guide and a leader. India has known him as a man who believed in the strength of its women long before many others did.
The writer, a former Rajasthan chief minister, is vice president, BJP
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