New Delhi, April 24 (IANS): Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi on Friday stressed on the need to motivate and inculcate leadership qualities among youngsters through inspirational books in place of lectures.

Speaking at a function of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) here, Bedi said such a step, which includes developing gender equality awareness, could be useful in enabling young boys and girls in deciding early in life about entering a non-traditional career.

She said that books on inspirational heroes and inspirational men and women must be shared with children to make them understand equality of gender.

On the occasion, the FLO launched 'FLO Women Empowerment in Education' initiative which aims at having more women in schools, in non-teaching jobs to help address the issue of safety of children.

At the event, schools and other stakeholders also took a pledge that for jobs opening up for the positions of security guards, administrative staff, bus drivers or bus conductors or even other jobs, they would give preference to women.

If the staff was being employed on contractual basis, they would urge their contractors to assign women for these positions, the pledge added.