President Obama closed out a trip to India Tuesday by nudging the Indian government to do more to protect women’s rights and religious freedom.
“Every daughter deserves the same chance as our sons,” Obama said from the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi. “Every woman should be able to go about her day, to walk the streets or ride the bus and be safe, and be treated with respect and dignity. She deserves that.”
Obama alluded to a 2012 gang rape on a bus in New Delhi, which led to massive protests against the nation’s lax laws on sex crimes, and a recent spate of high-profile sexual assaults in India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has faced growing pressure to address attacks on women.
And Obama also pressed the Modi administration to do more to protect religious freedom.
“Nowhere is it going to be more necessary for [religious freedom] to be upheld,” Obama said. “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith — so long as it’s not splintered along any lines — and is unified as one nation.”
Indian religious minorities, such as Christians and Muslims, have long complained about being ostracized or being aggressively forced to convert to Hinduism. In India, eight out of 10 people are Hindu.
Obama cut short his trip to India to travel to Saudi Arabia Tuesday to pay his respects to new Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
