PRESS BRIEFING - UNFPA BRIEFING ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA

Press Briefing

UNFPA BRIEFING ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH ASIA

Women’s oppression in South Asia went beyond religion, class or caste, and was so ingrained through tradition and culture that only a determined political effort and high-level commitment would make a difference, correspondents were told this morning at a Headquarters press briefing, on the release of a report on the gender issue in that region.

Khadija Haq, President of the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre, which prepared the report, Human Development in South Asia 2000, said that five years after the Beijing Conference on Women, there was not much difference. Very few meaningful gains had been made in the conditions for women.

The report, which covered Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, analysed women’s situations in five critical areas: legal, economic, education, governance and health. (Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), who was to have attended the briefing, was unable to be present.)

Ms. Haq said the Centre found that South Asia was the least gender sensitive region in the world. Women did not enjoy the same basic human rights as men and were continuously discriminated against, irrespective of class, caste or religion. The region had the lowest literacy rates, and the widest gap between literacy rates of men and women as well as in school enrolments for boys and girls. The vast majority of South Asian women did not have even the most rudimentary health facilities, which resulted in high maternal and child mortality rates.

Women were mostly invisible in the economy, she continued. Although they often worked the longest hours and did the heaviest and dirtiest, national income statistics did not recognize their work. As most women worked in the informal sector or the household, their work was not considered “work” but rather duty. As for wage gaps, in the rural agricultural sector women earned only 30 per cent of what men earned for doing the same job.

The justice system was the cruellest of all forms of discrimination, she said. Many times, judiciaries rendered decisions that were in violation of women’s constitutional rights. Although violence against women was common in the region, prosecutions of the perpetrators of the violence were rare.

Ms. Haq noted that several South Asian countries had been led by women presidents or prime ministers, but said those leaders had lacked the necessary critical mass of women in decision-making positions to translate that power into better conditions for women.

To respond to the problems, the report suggests that each country prepare its own framework for action based on the advances already made. Women’s equality must be enforced through the repeal of discriminatory laws and through affirmative action. Education and training of women in traditional and non-

UNFPA Briefing - 2 - 14 December 2000

traditional fields must be provided. Affirmative action should also be applied in equalizing economic opportunities.

A time-bound target for increasing women’s participation in governance was absolutely essential, she continued. At least one third of all positions in the executive, legislative and judiciary should be reserved for women. There should be targets that could be monitored.

The report was the first attempt to look at the South Asia-wide picture. Researchers first compared South Asian countries with each other, and then compared those countries to other developing regions.

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