Empowering of women benefits children

Central Chronicle, December 14, 2006
By Our Staff Reporter
Bhopal, Dec 13: UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children report for 2007 Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality, was released yesterday lauds India for investing in women's leadership. It details the positive impact that India has seen from the reservation of one third of Panchyat positions for women leading to significant benefits for children.

The report argues that providing girls with an education is the first critical step on the road to empowerment, but it is not the only one. Women must be given the opportunity to fully participate in decision-making regarding their own lives and the lives of their children. To do so, they must have equality and voice in the household, in the workplace and in the political sphere. India can not progress leaving half its population behind.

Sharing the report in UNICEF's state office for Madhya Pradesh UNICEF's State Representative Hamid El Bashir said this is imperative that all stakeholders must move from realm of words to realm of concrete action. He quoted the report which says that 'All obstacles to gender equality, regardless of origin, must be dismantled so that development can move forward... failure to secure equality for all has deleterious consequences for the moral, legal and economic fabric of nations' He added that the report lays out seven milestones to achieve parity: education, financing, legislation, legislative quotas, women empowering women, engaging men and boys, and improved research and data.

The latest India data reflects the global scenario mapped out in the report and shows that despite great strides in positive policies, India still faces a declining girl to boy child sex ratio in 80% of all districts, a high number of early marriages with nearly half of all girls marrying before the legal age of 18, and high infant and maternal mortality rates. These are all directly linked to attitudes towards women and their lack of access to basic services.
Also present at the launch in Delhi was, Sharmila Tagore, renowned actor and UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador, said "the formula is: Invest in women. The promise is a double dividend - a dividend for children, a dividend for adults. Invest in women when they are young infants and girls, invest in women in their prime of youth, invest in women when they are at their productive best."

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