International Women’s Day

My Lords, I join all noble Lords in congratulating my noble friend Lady Miller of Hendon. This debate is important, because while we all recognise that much progress has been made to the lives of many women in the world, and that is to be congratulated, there is, ashamedly, a lot more to do. I will concentrate the few minutes available to me on women in and from the Indian subcontinent. As someone born in India—a country that has had a woman Prime Minister, a woman president and a woman Speaker of the lower House—in the great city of Amritsar, Punjab, into a Sikh family, and proud of my historical roots, it is also important that I raise the issues that need highlighting again and again. While we think that we are immune to their impacts here, sadly that is not the case. Where education has been allowed to play a major role in the lives of women, there has no doubt been positive progress to the outcomes of those women and their families. But large parts of the Indian subcontinent are still rural, and there remains huge poverty both rurally and in the cities, even though the economies in the region are growing at a phenomenal rate. For example, while India has a predicted economic growth rate of around 8 per cent this year, 400 million people live on less than a dollar a day. All countries in the region recognise that investment in education and training is the way forward to ensure that people are lifted out of poverty. In fact, on a recent visit to India, it was a great joy to meet the Minister responsible for education. He was determined that education should be available to every child in India—a huge task, but one that has the determination of the Prime Minister behind it. That is a positive step, especially for girls. I emphasise education as the key because it enables women to seek employment and to access services in their own right, and ensures that they know exactly what they are signing when unscrupulous men ask for signatures. While women from better-off or better-educated families live lives very much like those of the liberated women in the West, dowry, widowhood, the colour of your skin or just being a female remain huge disadvantages in these countries. While we may abhor these burdens imposed on women and girls, sadly these practices remain as traditions in many Asian families, even in Great Britain. Therefore, it is important to recognise that these practices continue to exist and that often, because the nature of these traditions is closely linked to cultural expectations, people feel resistant to challenge them. If we are to improve the outcomes for those females who depend upon us to be their voice, whether we witness cruelty and abuse here or know of its practice in other countries, we need to challenge the politicians and communities here and of those countries to respond. As someone who has supported women who have suffered terrible abuse at the hands of men, usually from their own families, and having always stood up for those wishing to go on to higher education because they were articulate and competent, I know how hard it is to change mindsets. But if those do not change, traditions do not change and cultures do not evolve. Wishing that your baby had died at birth must be the hardest thing that a mother can bear when she finds out that she has given birth to a girl. Sadly, for many families in the Indian subcontinent, that remains a reality, and let us not be lulled into thinking that it does not happen here. I pay tribute to all men who are enlightened and who value the great strength that women bring. It is vital that they play their role in helping to resolve the issues that we face. However, it is the role of women to ensure that they are enlightened. My mother empowered me with confidence and self-belief, but it was my husband who supported, and still supports, everything that I do.