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Pratibha for self-defence training to girl students

— Photo: R. V. Moorthy

FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT: President Pratibha Patil receives the SAARC Gender Database from SAARC Secretary General Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji at the Sixth South Asia Regional Ministerial Conference in New Delhi on Thursday. Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, is at left.

NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Thursday called for implementation of stringent laws against sexual harassment of women at work places, and strict action against those indulging in teasing and molestation.

Inaugurating the Sixth South Asia Regional Ministerial Conference to commemorate the World Conference on Women here, Ms Patil said an important step in self-defence could be imparting training in judo and karate to all girl students to make them physically strong and confident to face challenges.

An agenda for the empowerment of women should cover gender needs and concerns at every stage and sphere of life — by prohibiting female foeticide and preventing female infanticide by giving better nutrition and equal education opportunities and providing care to the girlchild by sensitising society to look at her as a boon, she said.

The government and society should work together to ensure that women were made equal partners in all aspects of the growth of society and the nation. “There is a gap between de jure and de facto positions regarding their rights. The need of the hour was speedy implementation of legislative and policy measures for their empowerment.

Ms. Patil advocated awareness generation through a band of “gender advocates,” whose mission would be to bring about an effective implementation of policies and programmes for empowerment of women.

Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said there was need for cooperation among the countries in the South Asian region on key issues involving women. “We should have regional peer learning and sharing of best practices.”

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretary General Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji said the SAARC Development Fund had components dedicated to women. He launched the SAARC Gender Database at the conference. It has data on violence against women, trafficking, women’s health, including HIV/AIDS, and feminisation of poverty.

Delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are attending the three-day conference, organised by the United Nations Fund for Women.

The conference is an effort to assess the progress made by the countries in the region on the global action plan finalised at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

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