Commonwealth Day today
Commonwealth Day will be observed today with a theme for 2011 'Women as Agents of Change'.
Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday in March, a day when every school in the Commonwealth is open.
In a message on the occasion Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma expressed the hope that every child in the Commonwealth, across continents and oceans, will have the opportunity to be in school.
He said most schoolchildren know their fractions, and a simple one is this: one-half of the world's population may be made up of women and girls; yet women and girls bear two-thirds of the world's problems.
Sharma said two-thirds of those out of school worldwide are girls; and two-thirds of those who are illiterate, or out of work, or living with HIV/AIDS, are women.
He said girls should have the chance to grow up and become healthy, educated women who can make a positive difference to their own lives and to the lives of others.
“Women are the barometers of society: they are an indication of its internal pressure levels, and their fortunes can be the clearest forecasts of good or bad things to come,” he said.
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