October 23, 1970, Page 55Buy Reprints
Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who has gone about as far in life as a woman—or man, for that matter—can go, isn't losing much sleep these nights over women's libera tion.
“I don't think of people as being men or women,” she said yesterday. “I just think of them as people. Every person has some male and female in them. What's important is their compe tency.”
Mrs. Gandhi, 52‐year‐old Prime. Minister of 550 million Indians, spoke at an im promptu press conference at Sona, an Indian handicraft and fashion shop, at 11 East 55th Street.
She is here to attend cere monies marking the 25th anniversary of the United Nations. This morning she will address a special gather ing of the General Assembly, and she will return to India tomorrow.
Concept of Leadership
Mrs. Gandhi, dressed in a yellow and burnt orange silk sari and carrying an orange patent leather handbag, said that when it came to dealing with world leaders, she had no preference as to whether they were male or female.
“My theory is that men are no more liberated than women,” she said. “I sup pose leadership at one time meant muscle, but today it means getting along with people.”
She said the only time in her life that she had ever regretted being a woman was “before I was 16, because thought boys had more fun climbing trees.”
Indira Priyadarshini Gan dhi, whose middle name means “beautiful to behold,” is a small (5 foot 1‐inch), handsome woman with silver threads zigzagging through her black hair. Her father was Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India for. 17 years, who led India from colonialism to independence after World War II.
Popular With Masses
She became Prime Minis ter in January, 1966, and al though she is a frequent tar get of critics in both right and left wings of her Con gress Party, she is popular among the masses.
One of the greatest prob lems she has faced is India's high rate of growth—rough ly a million people a month —which she said is not so much due to a soaring birth rate as it is to a rapidly de clining death rate.
She recently announced that the birth rate had come down to 39 per 1,000, com pared with 42 per 1,000 ten years ago. Her goal for 1980 is to bring it down to 25 per 1,000.
She said she thought that her country's family plan ning programs were “un even,” but she added that she believed prevention of pregnancy was a much bet ter answer for her country than abortion.
Mrs. Gandhi was asked if her presence at the United Nations anniversary indi cated her support of that oft‐maligned world body.
“You would have to have some international agency where people get together to hammer out their difficul ties,” she said. “It hasn't been very successful, but think we should keep trying to make it a success.”
Mrs. Gandhi was married at the age of 25 to Feroze Gandhi, a young Congress Party legislator. Although they were once greatly in love, their marriage could not survive the strains that grew with her father's increasing prominence. By the early nineteen‐fifties, Mrs. Gandhi was devoting more time and attention to her father than to her husband, who died in 1960.
She has two sons, Rajiv, 26, a pilot with Indian Air lines (“His work doesn't wor ry me,” she said), and Sanjay, 23, an automotive engineer.
No Midi Problems
The Prime Minister, who wears nothing but saris, “ex cept for the few occasions when I go horseback riding,” hasn't been caught up in the mini — midi hassle that is plaguing so many countries in the Western world.
“What's nice about now is that people can choose what they want to wear,” she said, as incense wafted through the room, adding an authen tic Indian touch to the color ful shop.
She said that she no longer had time for two of her for mer favorite pastimes: yoga exercises and movies. As for yoga, “I'm getting too lazy,” she said. On movies: “I'm the kind of person who won't go to just any movie. It has to be a good movie, and haven't seen one for ages.”
Mrs. Gandhi's job has fre quently been called “the sec ond most difficult in the world,” after the American Presidency. Her problems are innumerable, and many of them seem at times to be unsolvable. Can she really say that she likes being Prime Minister?
Her lips curved into slight smile. “I've been trained since I was a tot to like what I'm doing,” she re plied. “If I didn't, I would leave it. It's a tremendous challenge, because there is so much to be done.”