New Delhi (AsiaNews) - "On International Women's Day, I want to say to all women: take your place in society, your time has come".  Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Indian Catholic bishops' conference, talks to AsiaNews about the victories won and the progress still to be made so that Indian women may overcome ancient prejudices.

The cardinal says that he is "hesitant" over the outcome of the government's project to give three thousand dollars to poor families for every female child, for the purpose of combating the widespread practice of abortion and infanticide applied to girls, who above all in the farming regions are seen as an economic burden.  He observes that "it is not easy for a law to change the social mentality, and I am afraid that it could be exploited by unscrupulous people.  To make advancement truly possible for rural women, it is instead essential to open primary schools near them, to increase the number of health clinics, and give greater medical assistance to women and children".

"It is necessary to intervene in the social mentality, according to which daughters are treated as inferior and subordinate to men beginning in childhood".  To improve the status of women, "improved education and economic opportunities" must be granted to them.

The Church is active in this, "with various initiatives for instruction and health, and for permitting women to better organise" their lives.  "Christians operate 20% of the primary schools in the country, 10% of the health programs, 25% of assistance centres for orphans and widows, and 30% of those for the handicapped, AIDS patients, and lepers".

In honour of the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter "Mulieris Dignitatem", on the dignity and vocation of women, the bishops' conference has chosen as the theme of its plenary session "The Empowerment of Women in the Church and Society".