International Women’s Day Panel discussion by B.PAC & French Consulate, Bengaluru On

“Empowerment of women in politics, governance and entrepreneurship” 


March 4th 2021
Alliance Francaise, Bengaluru

A stimulating discussion on “Empowerment of women in politics, governance, and entrepreneurship” was jointly organized by the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) and Consulate General of France on 4th March 2021 as a celebration of International Women’s day. The event was organized keeping COVID-19 etiquettes in mind. The event was conducted at Alliance Francaise, Bengaluru, and was also live-streamed on B.PAC’s YouTube page & French Consulate, Bengaluru’s Facebook page for the online viewers. There were two-panel discussions held during the event. 

The event started with Dr. Marjorie, Counsel General of France delivering a welcome address. She highlighted the significance of the event, which is to understand if equality and empowerment are a part of slow cultural evolution or should they be fostered and acted upon.

This was followed by an opening speech by Ms. Revathy Ashok, Honorable CEO of B.PAC, who emphasized the need to encourage gender equality on an everyday basis. She elaborated how B.CLIP or B.PAC Civic Leader Incubator program which comprises 33% women, contributes to this fight for gender equality. She also presented few alarming statistics of women’s representation in several sectors of work.

Statistics of Women Representation in Work Sectors:

  • Women make up only 17% of the police force, 29% of them are judges and 29% of them are IAS officers.
  • Women representation in Karnataka Gov has reached 50% in the third tier of government, however, representation remains stagnant at 3% on the parliamentary level.

First Panel Discussion :

The first panel discussion on “Empowerment of women through policies and governance” was moderated by Ms. Revathy Ashok. 

The discussion began with Dr. Mukund Rajan who addressed the concern of worker population ratio and shared insights about various govt schemes like Mudra, followed by IPS Isha Pant and Dr. Tejaswini Ananthkumar who together voiced their opinions on the under-representation of women in political sectors. Film Actress, Pranitha Subash, who is associated with the B.SAFE constituency program, highlighted the challenges faced by women on a daily basis and also stressed how movies help in breaking social norms.

Second Panel Discussion:

The second panel discussion on “Empowerment at office” was moderated by Dr. Marjorie, who emphasized the importance of having one’s own office which promotes empowerment at the corporate level. The panelists Ms. Alina Alam and Ms. Elisa Khetty explained women empowerment from their respective views. Mr. Emelian Coquard too expressed his views and stated “Women empowerment is about inclusivity”.

  The major takeaway from this event was the need to empower women so they can be the agents of change in this society, thereby transforming India in several aspects.