Professor Raj Kumar
Vice Chancellor of the O.P. Jindal Global University
Distinguished faculty and guests,
Students of this extraordinary university,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
Namaskar.
And as they say in my country – Ayubowan! (which means May You Live Long!)
International Women’s Day often becomes a moment for celebration. But it is also something else.
To me, International Women’s Day is a reminder of the distance between where women are today and where they have always had the right to be.
I am deeply honoured to have been invited to speak here today.
Until late last evening, the presence of our Foreign Minister in Delhi for the Raisina Dialogue kept me on my feet. It was during the early hours of this morning that I finally began thinking about what I would say here today.
As I read the letter addressed to me by Professor Raj Kumar, I was struck by the theme “Give to Gain.” Because it has a great deal of relevance to my own country, Sri Lanka, not as a slogan, but as a structural truth.
And I believe our story holds something genuinely useful for this conversation.Something a little unexpected, perhaps. And also, honest.
In 1960, sixty-six years ago, a woman stood before the people of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) elected by the people as the first female Prime Minister in the history of the world: Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Interestingly, she served for more than eighteen years across three terms.
In 1994, the people of Sri Lanka elected her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, first as Prime Minister and then as Executive President – Sri Lanka’s first and, to date, only female Executive President.
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