Raveena Tandon wears many hats. Apart from being a National Film Award-winning actor, she is also known to be a philanthropist, associated with various causes. Due to the strong roles, she has played over the years in empowering women and the work she has been doing for women and girl children for which she has also been awarded by the Women and child ministry. She became a pioneer after she adopted 2 girls and became a single mother at the age of 21. Now, she has been chosen by the ministry to be a delegate at the prestigious W20, the Women’s Empowerment engagement wing at G20 India’s Presidency.
The Women 20 (W20) is an official G20 engagement group, established during the Turkish presidency in 2015. The objective is to ensure that gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translated into the G20 Leaders Declaration as policies and commitments that foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
Talking about the kind of things she would like to highlight as a delegate of the W20, Raveena Tandon says, “First and foremost, I have to say that I am very proud to be born in India which gives umpteen opportunities to women. Women in our country have broken glass ceilings. Whether we have truck drivers, or pilots or in the army, or the air force or even working in fields, in the agricultural sector, in the railways, even becoming engine drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, auto rickshaw drivers, bus conductors, tickets collectors, etc – I think our women are making progress in leaps and bounds. I am very proud that I live in a country that is giving women this freedom and these kinds of opportunities, as sex holds no bar. You can participate and just be and decide and choose your own career options.”
“I think these are the kind of things that we need to highlight along with the issues and problems that are being faced by women in different careers. We also need to highlight security measures for them. We also need to highlight the fact that a lot more fast-tracking (needs to happen), as far as our laws are concerned, because in India our laws are very very supportive towards women, but most of the time they don’t get implemented or justice is meted out in time. So these are some of the points that I would like to highlight,” she adds.
Talking of the responsibility a platform and an honour like this comes with, Raveena Tandon says, “Well, it does come with a lot of responsibility as now during the summit we have to bring to the forefront the issues faced by women pan-India, across all spectrums and fields that they work in whether it’s the entertainment industry or the corporate sector or even basic fieldwork. So yes, there is an added responsibility along with this.”
As per a press statement sent by Raveena Tandon’s team, talking about this achievement, she says, “I am honoured to be invited and to represent 675 million Indian women in India as part of this delegation. Women in our country contribute to diverse sectors to run the economy and their efforts should be recognized internationally. Having This summit is a fantastic opportunity to empower women and provide them with more rights for their full social and economic participation. The proposed priority areas to be discussed are very much in line with my expectations.”
For the unversed, Raveena Tandon has been tirelessly working for the girl child, with various organisations, like UNICEF, Cry, White Ribbon Alliance for safe motherhood, Spina Bifida Association and Smile foundation. She single-handedly housed 30 girls in her own house and built an orphanage in Vasai for them after they were thrown out by their landlord.
She was the youngest chairperson for CFSI. Has been part of the advisory panel of Cintaa. Prime Minister Modi has praised the actress for her organ donation work. Her Rudra Foundation is doing a lot of work for children, women & animal welfare. During Covid times when Oxygen was a scarcity, her foundation tied up with DCP south to ensure 300 oxygen cylinders reached needy people. Cylinders were also sent to Radha Swami Satsang Beas, the Army hospital in Delhi and for lawyers and Legal journalists in Delhi NCR via the Honorable Supreme Court Bar Association. Acknowledging her passion for wildlife she has recently been announced as The Wildlife Goodwill Ambassador of Maharashtra.
