Reaffirming the government’s commitment to women empowerment, the Prime Minister today said the government is moving towards providing one third reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures. He said the government is also increasing the number of reserves seats in Panchayats and urban bodies, the constitutional amendment bills for which have been introduced in parliament. Opening the three day Women’s leadership Summit in New Delhi today, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that these moves will give an impetus to the movement of political empowerment of women. <br/><br/> Dr Manmohan Singh said, that women have been the special focus of of government efforts towards inclusive growth and no efforts and resources will be spared for their social, economic and political empowerment of women. He , however said that there a long way to go to achieve this goal. <br/><br/>Outlining various steps taken by the government towards this end the Prime Minister told the Summit participants that the He said that providing equal opportunities is crucial for women empowerment .He said that half of those who are getting work under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are women and out of 3.5 million self help groups formed under Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna. 2.3 million are women beneficiaries. <br/><br/> Pointing to the gender disparities in several indicators of human development like literacy, maternal and infant mortality rates, the Prime Minister regretted that while there has been some improvement over the years the progress has been much slow. The Prime Minister said that the maternal mortality rate which continues to be exceptionally high goes to show that there is a need for significant improvement to give women access to essential health care services. He also pointed out the female literacy rate is 20 percentage points below the male literacy rates, the decline in sex ratio and prevailing gender disparity on the economic front as well as. He said that the retention of girls in schools is also a matter of concern. He also said that violence against women also needs to be addressed. <br/><br/>In her address the Speaker Mrs. Meira Kumar said that the contribution of women in the GDP is not fully reflected and said that only 4.06 women are working in the organised sector whereas 96 percent are engaged in unorganised.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>