Newly elected Indian President Pratibha Patil, 72, gestures after the formal announcement of her victory in New Delhi, India, yesterday. Patil became the first woman to hold the post in a symbolic victory for the hundreds of millions of Indian women who contend with widespread discrimination.- AP

NEW DELHI (AP):

India got its first female president yesterday in a victory hailed as a special moment in a country where discrimination against women is often deep-rooted and widespread.

Pratibha Patil, 72, won 65.82 per cent of the votes cast by national lawmakers and state legislators, said P.D.T. Achary, the secretary general of Parliament. She had the support of the governing Congress party and its political allies, and had been widely expected to win.

“It is a special moment for us women, and men of course, in our country because for the first time we have a woman being elected president of India,” said Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who hand-picked Patil and was one of the first to congratulate her.

While India has had several women in positions of power – most notably Gandhi and her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who was elected to the more powerful position of prime minister in 1966 – women still face rampant discrimination.

Many Indian families regard daughters as a liability due to a tradition requiring a bride’s family to pay the groom’s family a large dowry of cash and gifts.

As a consequence, their education is often neglected, and many don’t get adequate medical treatment when ill.

International groups estimate that some 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in the country over the last two decades.

“This is a victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold,” Patil said in a brief statement to reporters, flashing the victory sign to her supporters.

Patil’s nomination surprised many, given her lack of national recog-nition despite more than four decades in politics.

Patil was a lawyer before entering politics and became a member of the state legislature in 1962. She was appointed a minister several times in the Maharashtra state government between 1962 and 1985. In the following decade, she served as a member of the Indian Parliament. Her most recent post was governor of the northern state of Rajasthan.