MUST SEE: Women From All of Parts of India

Saying that the empowerment of women was not at the expense of men, vice-president Hamid Ansari today said it would be a "fallacy" to see the issue as a zero-sum game.

"It wouldbe a serious fallacy to look at women empowerment as a zero-sum game leading to loss for men. Women cannot be empowered without the active participation of men," he said addressing the 59th convocation of SNDT Women's University here.

Ansari, as chairperson of Rajya Sabha, presided over the successful passage of the landmark Women's Reservation Bill in the Upper House of Parliament on March 9.

"Social reform is a relay race in which the baton has to be carried forward incessantly and the national discourse on the gender question has travelled a good distance and gathered momentum," he said.

"Experience has shown that women empower themselves by gaining power and control over their lives. Governments and
societies can facilitate these processes by creating
awareness, expanding choices, increasing women's access and
control over resources and through targeted interventions to
eliminate gender discrimination and inequality."

The time has come to move beyond tokenism. Legitimising gender equity in the minds of people is a complex process and women's empowerment per se is only part of the solution, the vice-president said.