New Delhi: Advocating a larger role for women in nation-building, President Pratibha Patil today said there is a need for more initiatives to empower the fairer sex.

"The reservation of seats for women in local bodies has done some improvement with regard to their (women's) empowerment. Still much more is needed to be done," Patil said, sharing her views on "women's emancipation" in India with a youth delegation at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Interacting with the 34-member group from 12 different countries as part of "Know India Programme", she said though the country has achieved a high growth rate and attracted huge investments in almost all sectors, it still faced basic problems of "poverty" and "illiteracy".

Answering a question about low rate of literacy in the country, she said the government has launched several programmes including "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" to provide free education to children.

The participants of the eighth "Know India Programme" organised jointly by the Ministry of Overseas India Affairs, and Confederation of Indian Industry among others, began their three-week long programme on November 26 last year. It comes to an end tomorrow. 

Source : PTI