Speaking about one of the awardees of the night, Deepa Malik, Smriti Irani said: ‘When you see Deepa Malik, you see how wheelchairs can get wings.’
Speaking at the Outlook SpeakOut 2019, Irani said, “One of the biggest fallacies we sell women is that it becomes easier after getting success, it doesn’t. Be ready to fight for the rest of your lives, if you want to live your life the way you want to.”
“Outlook SpeakOut talks about Resisting, Reclaiming, Rejoicing. So, today, I celebrate the women who resist the urge to live their life as victims,” she said.
Speaking about one of the awardees of the night, Deepa Malik, Irani said: “When you see Deepa Malik, you see how wheelchairs can get wings.”
Referring to actor Shefali Shah’s remark from earlier in the evening that everybody is the same and her definition of the term feminism was not the same as others, Irani said that she agreed to the former’s statement but today “these women on the stage deserved a special mention.”
Irani said that under the government’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana, the country underwent a revolution. “In a single year, 53 lakh women tested themselves for cervical cancer,” she said, adding, the fact that women wait for an opportunity or solution is a silent revolution.
“Migrants, labourers and all others who encompass this diversity that we celebrate as Indians,” she said, adding, “ladies and gentlemen, thank you for letting us celebrate the lives of these extraordinary women.”
The theme for this year’s Outlook SpeakOut event was What Women Want. The event saw 15 women discuss and debate women’s right to be safe, secure and healthy.
Prasanta Patnaik