Final Report.CDR - National Institute of health and family welfare

or as an institution have succeeded in achieving the ICPD goals and to think
what efforts are we making towards attaining the MDGs.
He concluded his remarks by congratulating Prof. Deoki Nandan and his
team towards organization of this training programme and hoped that it
would go a long way in strengthening the human resources to address
gender equity and development in India.
Key Note Address by Dr. Vibha Parathasarathy, Former Chairperson,
National Commission for Women
Gender is an issue integral to every one's life and no
aspect of health or developmental programmes
would be successful without associating the gender
components. Dr.Parthasarathy mentioned that
discrimination has very deep roots in the society and
has implications on phenomenon such as declining
sex ratios, feticides, malnutrition, depriving education
to girls. She focused on the shortage of schools for
girls, distance of schools at middle and high schools
as an important aspect to be noted while taking care of gender concerns all
over the nation. Some other problems like retention of girls, poor
infrastructure, and security, economic and social factors have also an
important bearing on the overall development of the girl child. In an Indian
context, poor quality of teaching in government schools and non-
comprehension of text material is yet another problem. Thereafter she
highlighted the nutritional deficiencies among girl children and adolescents,
which are a major cause of poor health. These two factors of health and
education contribute towards low overall status of women.
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