The meeting was organised by Department of Women and Child Development, BISWA and was coordinated by PRO, BISWA Mr. Pramod Patnaik. Dr. Jharana Mishra (Chief Manager, Research, Documentation and Consultancy), Mrs. Bani Mohapatra (Manager, Women and Child Development Dept. BISWA), Ms. Sunita Padhi (Member, Governing Body), Mrs. Pravasini Pradhan (Chief Manager, Office Administration), Mrs. Mamata Sahu (Chief Manager, Balancing) were among the speakers on the occasion.  
Addressing to the gathering, PRO Mr. Pattnaik said that to accomplish real sense of women empowerment, the women themselves have to come forward to fight for their rightful place in all walks of life and prevent their exploitation in every field. On the occasion, he said about the political empowerment of women and cited example of few luminaries who have left their footprints on the sands of time like Indira Gandhi, the first women prime minister of India.
Mrs. Bani Mohapatra in her address said that annually on 8th March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences and government activities. While shading light on the history of celebration of the day she said on 19th March 1911, it was a woman Clara Zetkin, the leader German Socialist Party who placed a proposal to put to the conference of socialist women that women throughout the world should focus on a particular day each year to press for their demands. Further it has been decided by the United Nation to observe the day on 8th March of every year.
Speaking to the occasion, Ms Sunita Padhi said that there are innumerable incidents of discrimination against women in the workplace all over the world. Poverty-stricken and orthodox societies are credited with having more number of such workplace discrimination cases. To confiscate the discrimination against female employees and to keep healthy and constructive relationship among the staff members, BISWA has a Sexual Harassment cell of 7 members. From the day of its inception the organisation has given prime importance in establishing women rights at all stages.
The theme of the 100th Women’s Day “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women” was brought forth by Dr. Jharana Mishra while explicating the theme she said: It is the economic and social empowerment of women that needs to be given greater importance. This could be achieved a lot though education. Education of women means greater awareness of their role in society, awareness of their rights, better knowledge of housekeeping and better performance of their roles as a housewife and mother. Education and training have opened up the avenues of employment and self-employment in the organized sector.
Dr. Mishra further invited the participants to come with their recommendations to establish the new theme for the coming years and the following suggestions came forward from them.
Mr. Rakesh Dash (CM Operation, BISWA): “Ensure participation of women in decision making process and change in mindset of male folk.”
Ms. Akanksha (Deputy Manager, Operation): “Women should feel respected by giving respect to themselves”
Mrs. Anuradha (Deputy Manager, NRM Dept): “Sharing is caring”.
Mr. Lalit Sharma (Correspondent, ‘The Samaj’) : “Nari Suraksha, Parivar ki Suraksha
Nari Asurakshit, Parivaar Asurakshit”
At the outset, Mrs. Mamata Sahu articulated that attitudes towards women have not changed; in fact, things have indeed gone from bad to worse after Independence. Despite law, such reprehensible practices as female foeticide and child marriage are still prevalent in many parts of the country. Dowry is a plague that stalks every family having marriageable daughters. Women are facing all kind of discrimination at their work place. She said when a lady can roam on the road at midnight time; we can say that we have attained our goal of women empowerment.
Further she narrated about BISWA’s role towards achieving women empowerment. BISWA has been implementing special programmes for the holistic development and empowerment of women with major focus to improve their socio-economic status.
Mrs. Pravaisni Pradhan read out the name of the generous employees of BISWA who have made a wholehearted donation for the welfare of the destitute women staying in BISWA SWADHAR Home on the occasion of 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD).
The meeting winded up with the concluding remark of Mr. Pattnaik that “Women’s empowerment means a lot, but the ultimate goal of the equalization of man and woman would materialize only when her complementary role is recognized by the society”.