Prayagraj (UP), Dec 21 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday said that his government has decided to raise the age of marriage for girls to 21 years because girls wanted to study further.

But everyone knows who are the people opposing the decision and trying to prevent girls from studying further, he said while addressing a rally of about 2.75 lakh women from all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

He said that before the BJP came to power in the state, there was "mafia raj" and "goonda raj" in the state. "Women bore the brunt of this and could not move about freely. Yogi Adityanath cracked down on such elements and today, women can move about freely and securely. UP now has safety and security and immense possibilities. It can no longer be pushed back," he said.

The Prime Minister, who transferred money to Self Help groups, bank sakhis and beneficiaries of Kanya Sumangala Yojana and also laid the foundation stone of 202 take home ration plants, said that these schemes were designed to empower women.

"I was talking to bank sakhis, SHG groups and beneficiaries of Kanya Sumangala Yojana earlier and saw great confidence in them. What is there in front of everyone, does not need to be proved. The change in their lives is visible and the nation can see it," he said.

The Prime Minister said that the bank sakhi programme has increased employment opportunities for women and brought banking to the doorstep. He informed that transactions worth Rs 75,000 crore were taking place through bank sakhis.

Talking about the take home ration plants, he said that this would ensure nourishment to women and also benefit farmers since the food grains would be purchased from them for the plants.

The flow of development and women empowerment will not stop now, and this has bene shown by UP," he added.

The Prime Minister further said that self-help groups had made women 'atmanirbhar'.

He said that his government has taken several steps for benefitting women.

"We abolished the practice of triple talaq for Muslim sisters. We set up over 700 fast track courts for rape cases and we also removed the ban on women working in mining sector," he added.

The Prime Minister said that Prayagraj was a symbol of women power because Maa Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati were present here.

Earlier, the Prime Minister interacted with representatives from various groups and heard their problems and took feedback about the change in their lives.

BJP's women MPs from UP were also present on the occasion.