Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Monday, November 20, 2023, encouraged girls and
women to have faith in their abilities and pursue their dreams, regardless of whether a field is
male-dominated. Lekhi was addressing a gathering of young innovators at an event hosted
by UNICEF on World Children’s Day in New Delhi. She urged them to go after their dreams,
emphasizing that India has a history of recognizing brilliant minds, irrespective of age, and
honoring them.

Fourteen young innovators from across India showcased their ingenious work at the event,
organized by UNICEF in partnership with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA).
The exhibition, themed “Innovate for Equality,” featured prototypes of innovative solutions
developed by the young minds. These included a robotic sanitizing machine, a smart helmet,
a mechanism to convert sign language into verbal text in English on a screen, smart gloves
for communication, a 3D-printed artificial hand for para-athletes, and shoes for the visually
impaired.

Before delivering her keynote address, Lekhi interacted with the young innovators and saw the prototypes they had developed