Lucknow, Sept. 28 -- The women and child development department organised a special public awareness programme on gender equality across the state on Saturday. Street plays focusing on women's empowerment have impacted a large number of people. These plays were staged in city lanes, neighbourhoods, village panchayat gatherings, schools, and colleges. The campaign aims to highlight gender inequality as a barrier to social progress and to ensure that women and girls lead self-reliant, safe, and dignified lives. Over the past six days, this campaign has reached 4,15,355 people. The street plays illustrated that gender inequality involves depriving women and men of equal opportunities, education, employment, and social recognition. Issues such as childhood discrimination, disparities in education and healthcare, workplace discrimination, and wage gaps were vividly brought to life on stage. In one scene, while portraying the limitations imposed on girls' careers, a solution was highlighted, emphasising equal treatment of sons and daughters within families and the promotion of educational opportunities. Leena Johri, principal secretary of the women's and child development department, said that gender equality is the cornerstone of this campaign, because "until women and men in society receive equal opportunities, rights, and respect, our development will remain incomplete. Through the street plays, we have taken this message to every home that gender inequality is not just a problem for women but a responsibility of the entire society. "Our goal is for every girl and every woman to live a self-reliant, safe, respected, and equal life. To achieve this, we must ensure equal attitudes toward daughters and sons within families, equality in education, a respectful environment in workplaces, and women's participation in social institutions."...