"Our country is being pictured as a place where there is violence against women. I feel it is not entirely true. There is violence everywhere. There is much more discrimination in America.. More than India," he said at the first National Women's Parliament here.
Women have always enjoyed tremendous respect in India and that the country has opened up in terms of educating and employing women, he noted.
He rued while impetus is being given to women empowerment, the fairer sex was practising double standards as a "mother wants her son to do better in life first".
A three-day National Women's Parliament is being organised here by the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with the theme of 'Empowering Women - Strengthening Democracy'.
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and P Ashok Gajapati Raju, AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, Bangladesh Parliament Speaker Shirin Chaudhury, Gandhian Ela Bhatt, actress Manisha Koirala and many other dignitaries had attended the inaugural event yesterday.