Gender equality brings 'double dividend' to women, children

UNICEF Bangladesh Representative Louis-Georges Arsenauilt launches UNICEF's flagshiwp publication 'The State of the World's Children 2007' at city hotel yesterday

Gender equality in all spheres -- household, empowerment, politics and government -- produces the "double dividend" of benefiting both women and children, according to the report titled 'The State of the World's Children 2007'.

The Bangladesh national launch of the report was held at a city hotel yesterday.

The report showed that 62 percent of women in a region in Bangladesh have experienced physical or sexual violence by their intimate partners and that the rate of selective abortion of female foetus and infanticide remained high in Asia, especially in India and China.

A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute found that there is a clear link between regional differences in children's nutritional status and women's decision-making power, the report said, adding that over a third of Bangladeshi women feel excluded from household decisions.

In South Asia, between 40 percent and 60 percent of women are underweight and approximately 45 percent of children were born with low birth weight in 2005 -- the highest incidence of underweight births in the world.

It further explained that the prevalence of under-nutrition among children under five in female-headed households compared with male-headed households was significantly lower in Bangladesh.

Although significant progress in engaging women in labour force was witnessed in recent decades, there has been considerably less advance on improving the conditions under which they work, the report said, emphasising the need to ensure equal opportunities to generate and manage income, which is a must to establish women's rights.

The report reveals the lack of awareness among women about their employment rights. "Fifty percent respondents from South Asia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan agree or strongly agree that when jobs are scarce men should have more right to job."

Women's parliamentary representation has increased in recent times that reinforced, the rights of women and children in Egypt, France, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, South Africa and Sweden, the report said.

But in most cases women are underrepresented -- only 17 percent in parliaments worldwide, 14 percent of ministries and just 6 percent of the world's heads of government. In Bangladesh, 50 percent of women respondents think men make better political leaders than women.

Zafrin Chowdhury, senior communication officer of Unicef Bangladesh, presented the report.

Appreciating the present ratio of gender parity in primary education, Unicef Representative Louis George Arsenault said discrimination against women in the household and in politics has a direct and positive effect on children.

Prof Ferdous Azim of Brac University lauded the holistic approach of the report and urged the people to put pressure on the government to implement international conventions to establish women's rights and ensure gender equality.