New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, on Thursday asserted that a nation’s present and future is determined by how far its women are healthy, educated and empowered, while accusing previous governments in the state of “nurturing their own political cliques” rather than providing support to daughters.

In a post on ‘X’, the Chief Minister offered prayers to Goddess Skandamata on the fifth day of ‘Sharda Navratri’, saying: “The presiding deity of affection, maternal love, and nourishment, Goddess Skandamata, through her worship, imparts to us this sacred message that when a woman is healthy, educated, and empowered, only then is the nation’s present secure and its future radiant.”

“Before the year 2017, instead of providing support to daughters, the previous governments were solely engrossed in nurturing their own political cliques,” he alleged.

“In the state, the health of mothers and the education of daughters had fallen prey to gross neglect and corruption. The dilapidated state of hospitals, the shortage of medicines, and the lax arrangements for institutional deliveries had pushed maternal and infant mortality rates to an alarming level,” he stated while adding that due to the lack of facilities, “lakhs of daughters in the state were forced to drop out of their studies”.

However, CM Adityanath asserted that over the past nine-and-a-half years, the double-engine government has undertaken the task of transforming this situation, by creating a comprehensive cycle of security and welfare for daughters, from their birth to their education and safe motherhood.

“Through ‘Operation Kayakalp’, the saturation of basic facilities in primary schools has increased from 36 per cent to more than 96 per cent. Meanwhile, the school dropout rate has decreased from 20 per cent to less than 3 per cent,” he stated.

The Chief Minister further said that through ‘Atal Awasiya Vidyalayas’, daughters from deprived sections were receiving modern, world-class residential education.

“The expansion of facilities for education up to Class 12 in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas is providing daughters with opportunities to complete their education,” he mentioned.

CM Adityanath highlighted that investing in the education of daughters is an investment in their self-confidence and in strengthening the future of the state.

–IANS

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