'Participatory democracy not feasible without economic inclusion'

Criticising the current economic order, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has emphasised the need for participation of all people in economic activities for securing democracy proper.

‘Ensuring participatory democracy is a fundamental goal. But we all should remember that participatory democracy is not feasible without participatory economy," she told a gathering of Indian women in Amaravati, Andhra, on Friday, said a news release in Dhaka on Sunday.

Nobel laureate Dalai Lama, India's union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and P Ashok Gajapati Raju, Andhra chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Puducherry lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi, Gandhian Ela Bhatt, speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and actress Manisha Koirala, among other dignitaries, attended the inaugural event.

Observing that the economy that the world has today is certainly not a participatory  economy, professor Yunus said bottom half of the population hardly has any share in it.

"One percent of population of the world owns 99 percent of the global wealth. That does not sound very participatory," added the Nobel peace prize winner of 2006.

Terming financial service oxygen of economic life, he pointed out that bottom half of people, particularly women in the bottom half, do not have access to this oxygen. "That is why their economic life remains extremely weak."

Yunus was the keynote speaker at the three-day National Women’s Parliament (NWP) organised by Andhra Pradesh (AP) Legislative Assembly, with the theme of ‘Empowering Women - Strengthening Democracy’.

About 12,000 young women from all over India participated in the conference, according to the release issued by Yunus Centre.

The vision of NWP is to enable and encourage social, political and economic empowerment of women in all strata of the society, said the news release.