Date:13/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/13/stories/2006121301851500.htm

National

Investment in women will bring in double dividends: Sharmila Tagore

Special Correspondent

``We should ensure that all girls and boys exercise their right to basic education''

Photo: R. V. Moorthy

THE REAL PICTURE: UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador Sharmila Tagore, Kul Gautam, Deputy Executive Director UNICEF (left), and Cecilia Lotse, Director, South Asia Region, and girl stars launching the UNICEF State of the World's Children Report 2007 in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Cine star and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF ) Goodwill ambassador Sharmila Tagore on Tuesday called for investment in women.

The promise was a double dividend — a dividend for children, and a dividend for adults. "Invest in women when they are young infants and girls, invest in women in the prime of their youth, invest in women when they are at their productive best." Ms. Tagore was launching the UNICEF State of the World's Children: "Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality" here.

"Societies that discriminate against women are also implicitly discriminating against children. We stand no chance of substantially reducing poverty, child mortality, HIV/AIDS and other diseases if we do not ensure that all girls and boys exercise their right to basic education."

The country must address the issues of wage and asset gaps, unpaid care work, formal and informal employment, cottage industries, self-employment, and the role of education and lifelong learning.

Present at the function were three persons from underprivileged backgrounds who changed their lives by going to school. Suryamani Bhagat is an environmental activist from Jharkhand and founder of `Torang', a tribal rights and cultural centre in Ranchi district. She takes children for nature walks to teach them to love trees and help save them. Anita Khushwaha, a beekeeper when she was young longed to go to school and found a way to pay for her education by doingbeekeeping business. Krishna Bagel, a school teacher of Madhya Pradesh was the only girl in her village to complete grade 12.

All others of her age dropped out because the school was too far away.