Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla on Thursday said efforts were on to empower women from every section of society and economic empowerment was the first stage of strengthening their position in society.
Heptulla, speaking at the 5th International Women Entrepreneurs Summit and Exhibition here, said her ministry has evolved several programmes to achieve this objective.
"The schemes like 'Nai Roshni', a leadership development programme for minority women, are specific initiatives in this direction," she said.
"This programme aims to empower and instil confidence among minority women by providing them knowledge, tools and techniques to interact with government systems, banks and other institutions at all levels," she said.
In the past two years, the minority affairs ministry has trained over 97,000 women in different areas.
"The need of the hour is to meet the requirements of all the regions for effective women empowerment and business development," she said.