INDIAN WOMEN WORST OFF THAN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN NATIONS: VICE PRESIDENT

 Vice President Hamid Ansari today said, some women
devlopment indices in India are worst than those in Sub-Saharan
African countries due to years of “discrimination and deprivation.”

Addressing the XIX convocation of the North Eastern Hills University,
Ansari said, the overall picture of gender inequality in India is
“distrubingly stark.”`

“ Every third women in India suffers from energy deficiency. This
level is higher than all Sub-Saharan countries. 55 per cent of adult
Indian women – every second women – suffer from iron deficiency. Here
too the Sub Saharan African countries do better,” Ansari told the
gathering.

Touching on women’s participation in the fields of politics, economics
and judiciary, he said, less than 11 per cent of the seats in the
Indian Parliament are held by women. The situation is worst in state
Assemblies. Moreover, women hold less than ten per cent of the
Ministerial position at the centre with a lone Cabinet Minister.

The level of female economic activity is lower and so is female
participation in professional and technical works. The Vice President,
said that according to the Five Year Strategic Plan of the Ministry of
Women and Child Devlopment for 2011-2016 it has been noted that just
14 per cent of women are employed, while 54 per cent of men are
employed in the urban sector. In the rural sector, the figure is 31
per cent for women and 55 per cent for men.

 “ Since Independence there have been only five women judges of the
Supreme Court, constituting just 3 per cent of appointments,” Ansari
pointed out, stating: “ thus the picture of discrimination and
deprivation that emerges is disturbingly stark.”
He said the way out was “not to camaflouge reality” by restoring to
tokenism and parading exceptions, but by addressing the problem head
on.

He said the National Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2001 has
outlined three policy approaches to do away with gender inequality and
therfore a begining was made.

In the policy it has been proposed to make the legal system more
responsive and gender sensitive for women’s needs. Moreover, women
must be economically and socially empowered through focused efforts,
he added.

“After a decade, launch of the National Mission for Empowerment of
Women in March 2010 is an important development that will enable
coordinated assesment of current government interventions and align
future programmes so as to translate the recommendations and
approaches of the National Policy into reality,” the Vice President
said.

However, he cautioned that mere government intervention was not
enough. “ Better results would be produced by women citizen empowering
themselves and being encouraged to do by enlightened segments of
public opinion,” Ansari said.