The Prime Minister today reaffirmed the government’s commitment to social, economic and political empowerment of women, but said that there is a long way to go to achieve this goal. Opening the three day Women’s leadership Summit in New Delhi today, Dr. Manmohan Singh however assured that no resources and efforts will be spared to achieve this objective. He said that women have been a special focus of the government's efforts towards inclusive growth. <br/><br/>Outlining various steps taken by the government towards this end the Prime Minister told the Summit participants that the government is moving towards providing one third reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha and State Legislatures. <br/><br/> He said that the amendment bills for increasing the number of reserved seats in Panchayats, city and town governments to 50 percent have already been introduced. He said these moves will give an impetus to the movement of political empowerment of women. <br/><br/> Dr. Singh said that providing equal opportunities is crucial for women empowerment and in this context he spoke of various programmes of the government under which women are benefitting. 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/> Ahead of the International Women's Day, the Prime Minister also pointed out that gender disparities are reflected in several indicators of human development such as literacy, maternal and infant mortality rates. He said that while there has been some improvement over the years the progress has been much slow. The Prime Minister said, maternal mortality rate which continues to be xceptionally high goes to show that there is a need for significant improvement to give women access to essential health care services. The Prime Minister also pointed out that, female literacy rate is 20 percentage points below male literacy rates, there is decline in sex ratio and gender disparities on the economic front as well as. He said, retaining girls in schools is also a matter of concern. Dr. Singh 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/>