PM hands over social media accounts for Women’s Day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hand over his social media accounts on Sunday to celebrate inspiring women on International Women’s Day, months after facing criticism over a series of high-profile rape cases.With more than 50mn followers on Twitter, Modi, 69, has one of the biggest followings on social media among world leaders.“This Women’s Day, I will give away my social media accounts to women whose life & work inspire us. This will help them ignite motivation in millions,” Modi said in a tweet yesterday.He asked people to share entries of such women using the hashtag #SheInspiresUs, which became the top trending topic on Twitter about an hour after he posted his tweet.Soon after Modi’s announcement, the central government sprang into action.The government has launched a week-long programme to celebrate women-led development initiatives.Seven themes are being identified for seven days to highlight the contribution of women in all fields.The Ministries of Women and Child Development, Information & Broadcasting, Health, Human Resource Development (HRD), Agriculture among others are launching the women centric campaign to observe the International Women’s Day.“The campaign has a theme for all the days beginning from 1st March, 2020. The themes that are being observed are education, health and nutrition, empowerment of women, skills & entrepreneurship and participation in sports, special circumstances, rural women & agriculture and urban women,” the government said in a statement.A special programme by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor will be shown by state-owned Doordarshan until March 7, highlighting special recipes for healthy and nutritious food for women during pregnancy.Similarly, the HRD Ministry in collaboration with the University Grants Commission (UGC) is conducting round tables on women empowerment on seven themes in about 40 central universities around the country.Modi’s support for the March 8 event came after he faced flak for failing to check violence against women following a series of rape cases late last year that triggered mass protests.In November, a 27-year-old vet was raped, suffocated and her dead body set alight on the outskirts of Hyderabad.Another rape victim was set on fire and killed by a gang of men, including her alleged rapists, in December.