Written by Jatin AnandTirupati | September 16, 2025 03:52 AM IST 3 min readLok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at the national conference on women empowerment, in Tirupati on Monday. (PTI)Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday made a strong pitch for sustainable economic empowerment models for women and said women empowerment is not only a social imperative but also an economic necessity.“By investing in women’s health, education, skills and entrepreneurship, India can unlock a vast reservoir of human capital and build a resilient socio-economic model of development,” he said.Birla, in his address at the valedictory session of the two-day national conference on committees on empowerment of women of Parliament and state legislatures, said a nation can only truly be called developed when half of its population is able to participate fully and actively in the mainstream of development.He called for institutionalising gender budget cells in ministries and state departments, enhancing allocations for women’s healthcare, education, skills, entrepreneurship and access to credit, and monitoring outcomes through gender-disaggregated data.The two-day conference, which drew legislators from Parliament and other legislative bodies from across the country to Tirupati, adopted a resolution on gender responsive budgeting in government departments and the need for a campaign to ensure digital literacy for women on lines of adult literacy mission.Andhra Pradesh Governor S Abdul Nazeer in his valedictory address said India is lagging behind in political empowerment of women, who need to be encouraged to play a more active role in this sphere going forward.Terming the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023 historic, he said the legislation was India’s message to the world that gender equality was not only essential but attainable.Story continues below this ad“The reservation will be implemented after the completion of the delimitation process and Census… At the time of the Bill’s passage, only 14% of the Lok Sabha’s members were women. While that represents India’s highest proportion since Independence, it was far below the global average of 26.5%,” he said. Among state Assemblies, Chhattisgarh has the highest percentage of women legislators at 18%, while Himachal Pradesh has just one woman MLA and Mizoram has none, he said.“Women should be encouraged to play an active role in politics; there is no better tool for the development of women than empowerment and education is a very powerful weapon for women’s empowerment,” he said.Jatin Anand is an Assistant Editor with the national political bureau of The Indian Express. Over the last 16 years, he has covered governance, politics, bureaucracy, crime, traffic, intelligence, the Election Commission of India and Urban Development among other beats. He is an English (Literature) graduate from Zakir Husain Delhi College, DU & specialised in Print at the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai. He tweets @jatinpaul ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Om Birla