Sudha Murty’s 1st speech in Parliament: Rajya Sabha MP calls for govt-backed cervical cancer vaccine programme | Watch

Philanthropist and author Sudha Murty made her maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha on July 2. The MP advocated for a government-sponsored vaccination programme to combat cervical cancer and also emphasized promoting domestic tourism.

Sudha Murty was appointed to the upper house by the President on the eve of International Women's Day.

In her maiden speech, the Rajya Sabha MP said, “There is a vaccination which is given to girls, between the age of nine to 14, known as a cervical vaccination. If the girls take that, it (cancer) can be avoided ... we should promote vaccination for the benefit of our girls because prevention is better than cure.”

Murty added that cervical vaccination has been developed in the West and it is being used for the last 20 years. "It worked very well. It is not expensive. Today it is ₹1,400 for people like me who are in the field. If the government intervenes and negotiates...you can bring it to ₹700-800. We have such a large population. It will be beneficial for our girls in future," she said.

Apart from women's health, Murty also pitched for promoting domestic tourism. She proposed that 57 domestic tourist sites be nominated as World Heritage Sites.

“In India, we have 42 world heritage sites but we have 57 pending and we should bother about it.”

Listing about the very important ones, she added, “There is a marvellous statue of Bahubali at Shravanabela Gola in Karnataka. There are group of monuments in Mandu in Madhya Pradesh who are very very beautiful. If you go to East, you have Tripura state and they have fantastic sculputure known as Unakoti, natural roots bridge in Mizoram and eastern part of India which is God's gift to us.”

She further added, “There are beautiful Mughal gardens in Kashmir. We always go and see the film shootings, but we never realise that they are not in the World Heritage Sites. The package should be done very well so that people can come and see them. The package should be conveniently done so that we should have good toilets and roads so that the tourists can come. It will increase our revenue in our own country." She said a group of old monuments of Sarnath, which are 2500 years old, are still not among World Heritage Sites.