Tomorrow's world starts with mothers
Mahler, H.
Panoscope 18: 28
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0951-8819 PMID: 12316564 Document Number: 371963
In the Third World millions of malnourished, overworked women and girls are excluded from the circles of power, and they are out of touch with the other half of humanity approaching 5 billion. In the villages of South Asia they face poverty, constant toil, and continual pregnancies. The plight of those women is an scathing indictment on how these societies value their female citizens. There can be no long-term development anywhere on this planet unless women are fully involved in the design of the societies. To be involved they must be healthy, respected citizens. The centrality members is not clearly enough understood or recognized. Maternal mortality is too often the end-result of a life diminished by discrimination from the moment of birth to early marriage. If women are to be healthy they must have increased access to education, training, credit, health care, and legal protection. The poorer women are, the more vulnerable they are to exploitation from unfair labor practices, prostitution, and physical violence. In Peru, 70% of all crimes reported comprise women beaten by their partners. In India, police recorded 1,786 dowry deaths in 1987, but a women's action group estimates the figure is over 1000 in Gujarat state alone. Women must be brought into the mainstream of our societies. One way of doing so is to use the model of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly 10 years ago that gives legal guidelines to enhance women's rights and status.