Commonwealth women in dire straits

KAMPALA: In a moment of truth for the 53-country Commonwealth, which counts every third human being on the planet as a Commonwealth citizen, it has just acknowledged that the majority of its women are in dire straits.

Women's affairs ministers from 32 Commonwealth countries, including India's Renuka Chowdhry, ended a two-day meeting here on Thursday with a dispiriting laundry list of the problems faced by women and girls across the Commonwealth, from Belize to Bangladesh.

The meeting, one of the biggest on gender equality anywhere in the world this year, said t he plight of the Commonwealth's women was so poor that just five of the 53 Commonwealth countries had achieved the golden figure of 30 per cent women representation in parliament.

Commonwealth countries lead the world in rates of infant and maternal mortality, the ministerial communiqué said. It added that the association was afflicted with 60 per cent of HIV and AIDS cases globally and a frighteningly large proportion of sufferers are female.

Accordingly, the women's ministers urged their governments "as a critical priority" to fund gender equality rather than simply talking about it. They said the Millennium Development Goals "are seriously off-track" for Commonwealth member-nations.

To read the full article please visit:
The Times of India