Amid outrage over the Kolkata doctor rape-murder case and the sexual abuse of two four-year-old girls in Badlapur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that ‘crime against women is an unforgivable sin and whoever is guilty should not be spared’.

Speaking at the Lakhpati Didi Sammelan in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, PM Modi said, “Today I will once again tell every political party of the country and the state government that crime against women is an unforgivable sin. Whoever is guilty, he should not be spared. Those who help him in any way should also not be spared. Be it a hospital, school, office or the police system at whatever level negligence occurs, everyone should be held accountable. Our government is also continuously making the laws stricter in order to give the harshest punishment to those who torture women.”

PM Modi at the function released a Revolving Fund of Rs 2,500 crore which will benefit about 48 lakh members of 4.3 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHG). He also disbursed bank loans of Rs 5,000 crore for the benefit of 25.8 lakh members of 2.35 lakh SHGs.

The prime Minister said, “The government is opening every sector for our daughters, where there used to be restrictions… Today women officers are being deployed in all three defence wings, fighter pilots are being deployed. From agriculture and dairy sector in villages to the startup revolution, today a large number of daughters are managing businesses,” he added.

“Today, more than 1.25 lakh bank sakhis are providing banking services in villages. Now we are also making our sisters drone pilots so that they can help farmers in doing modern farming with drones. We are giving leadership roles to women for modern farming and natural farming, for this we have started the Krishi Sakhi programme,” he said.

PM Modi told the participants that they must have heard that India is going to become the third-largest economy in the world and women play a huge role in it. However, it wasn’t the case a couple of years ago, he reminded them.

“Women guarantee the prosperity of every home and every family. However, there was no one to guarantee help for the women. Women didn’t have property in their names, and if they had to take a loan from a bank, they could not avail it. In such a situation, they were not able to build their own small business. Therefore, I, your son and brother, resolved to ease your lives. We made decisions in the interest of women year after year,” he said.

“Our government has decided that whatever houses the government builds for the poor, they should be registered in the name of women. Most of the four crore houses built so far are in the name of women. Now we are going to build three crore more houses, most of these houses will also be in the name of our mothers and sisters,” said PM Modi.

The Prime Minister said that the campaign to make Lakhpati Didi is not just a campaign to increase the income of sisters and daughters. This is empowering the whole family and the coming generations. This is changing the entire economy of the village. “When I came amongst you during the Lok Sabha elections, I had said that we have to make three crore sisters Lakhpati Didis. In the last 10 years, one crore Lakhpati Didis have been created and in the last two months only, 11 lakh more Lakhpati Didis have joined them,” he added.

PM Modi mentioned that in the last 10 years 10 crore women have associated with this campaign of Lakhpati Didi and they were connected with banks by giving them affordable loans with ease. “Till 2014, less than Rs 25,000 crore bank loans were given to Sakhi Mandals. On the other hand, around Rs 9 lakh crore assistance has been given in the last 10 years. Besides, a 30 times increase has been seen in the direct assistance given by the government to women,” he said.

“Today, I challenge you … keep the seven decades of previous governments on one side and put 10 years of the Modi government on the other scale, the amount of work that the Modi government has done for the sisters and daughters of the country, no government has done after Independence,” said PM Modi amid thunderous applause from the participants.

Before the function, PM Modi interacted with a group of Lakhpati Didis, who thanked him for the steps taken for women’s welfare.